


Shocking

by TheSovereigntyofReality



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Civil War Team Iron Man, Future, Gen, Inspired by commentary I've observed, Moderated, Mutant Powers, Not Avengers friendly, Team Stark, mainly from Disney, tags will be changed as story progresses, though Tony doesn't appear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2020-03-01 10:07:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 21,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18798193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSovereigntyofReality/pseuds/TheSovereigntyofReality
Summary: There comes a time when a child must grow up.And Starks have a habit of continuing the work that the previous generation never managed to finish.





	1. Mutants

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer: If you recognise it from somewhere else, it isn't mine.**

‘So an entire portion of the woods around you were destroyed, and the fish in the lake all floated up to the surface, dead?’ Dr. Strange asked, walking down the stairs in the sanctum to where 14-year old Morgan Stark stood with her mother and Happy Hogan.

‘Yeah,’ Morgan said. ‘I don’t know what happened.’

‘I might,’ Dr. Strange said. ‘How were you feeling at the time this happened?’

‘She’d run out of the house because Rhodey told her he was going to rejoin the Avengers for their latest mission,’ Pepper said. ‘She hasn’t been overly fond of them since she did the research into her father’s time on the team.’

Strange quirked an eyebrow. He wasn’t going to say it, but he couldn’t exactly blame her. He’d done his own research, after the Snap was reversed. His research was triggered by the interactions he’d seen between Stark and Banner. The way those people had treated Stark was, frankly, appalling. They coasted on his good-will and generosity, all the while berating him and acting like he needed supervision, like a child.

Meanwhile, after the data dump, the only one that actually had a job was Stark. Rhodes was only a reserve member, so he didn’t really count. Wilson said he was a counsellor for the VA but, firstly, he hadn’t worked since joining the Avengers and, secondly, according to the VA records, he was a PTSD group therapy mediator.

It wasn’t really a surprise. Lots of people had trouble differentiating between the two jobs. Some people even used the words interchangeably. Rightfully, though, someone should have noticed Wilson’s confusion – the VA, at the very least – and corrected him. Although, rightfully, that meant a lot of people had fallen down. Wilson would have put “counsellor” on a lot of documents – tax returns, various applications – so somebody should have noticed.

Back to the issue at hand, Strange led the three of them up the stairs and to a small device that had been “appropriated” years ago. He held it out to Morgan. ‘Prick your finger on this. If it comes back positive, then I can answer what happened.’

‘And negative?’ Morgan asked, taking the short stick, uncapping it and pricking her finger. She gave the slightest wince.

‘I haven’t got a clue.’

The device beeped and Morgan looked at it. ‘Positive.’ She handed it back.

‘So what’s going on?’ Happy asked.

Dr. Strange pressed his lips together. ‘You, Morgan Stark, are a mutant.’

Morgan, Pepper, and Happy looked between each other.

‘Isn’t everyone?’ Pepper asked, pointing to her red hair.

Dr. Strange smiled sardonically. ‘Technically, but that’s not what I meant. Come on.’ He led them through the sanctum and into one of the study rooms. He booted up the computer and then opened up a program. Then he stepped aside so they could see the animation on the program as he explained. ‘In some people, there is a mutation on the 23rd pair of chromosomes – specifically, the part of it generally inherited from the father.’ He illustrated the point on the diagram he had up.

‘And that’s what’s happened to me?’ Morgan asked.

‘Yes,’ Strange said. ‘This mutation gives you natural powers. Yours, I think, based on the effect on the lake, would be electricity-based.’

Morgan frowned for a moment, then realisation dawned on her face. ‘Oh, the fish! Water conducts electricity, so an electric shock hitting a lake would be conducted through the whole body of water and kill everything in it not equipped to deal with it.’

‘Precisely.’

‘So is this the next step in evolution or something?’ Happy asked. ‘Cause if it’s a mutation...’ He waved a hand.

‘Most likely,’ Dr. Strange said. ‘The Order has detected a steady increase in mutant births over the years.’

‘Then why have we never heard of them?’ Pepper asked.

‘Well, according to Order records, mutants have always suffered the worst of xenophobic fear. The most prevalent theory for this is based on the fact that other minorities could be set upon and were very limited in what they could do to defend themselves. Mutants, who each had different powers, were not limited in this way. Therefore, they were less of “a smear on society”, so to speak and more of a threat.’

Happy nodded. ‘So, eventually, they found a way to conceal their existence.’

‘Not them,’ Strange said. ‘We did. We propagated the idea that mutants were just a myth in the same way that witches, as in the medieval understanding of them, were not real. We made the idea that someone could be born with powers a preposterous notion.’

Pepper frowned and took a hold of Morgan’s shoulders. ‘What did people _do_ to mutants?’

‘Killed them,’ Strange said. ‘Beat them to death. Entire cities would be sacked and destroyed because it was found there was one mutant living among them. The worst of it was the most mutants attacked were attacked because of how their powers manifested – in the early stages of puberty and in response to an emotional outburst.’

Pepper looked down at her daughter for a moment, but then she frowned at Strange. ‘But, with the way things have been going since Tony became Iron Man, that cover’s got to be blown out of the water at some point.’

Dr. Strange nodded, looking like he smelt something nasty. ‘Yes, and with the way the law views enhanced, despite the exceptions like myself and Spider-Man, those witch hunts are going to start all over again.’ He took a deep breath. ‘It’s also only recently that mutants have began to organise, but mostly in two opposing factions. Certainly, there are the smaller groups but those prefer to work in the shadows.’

‘What groups?’ Morgan asked.

‘One is the Brotherhood of Mutants,’ Strange said. ‘Our research shows that they’re led by a figure called Magneto, who thinks mutants inherently superior to all other types of humans. He has no qualms about killing them, or getting them killed. On the other side, there’s Professor Charles Xavier. He’s primarily a pacifist who runs a school for mutant children and is more interested in getting mutants to integrate into human society. He’s an extremely strong advocate for learning to control your powers.’

‘That doesn’t sound so bad,’ Pepper remarked.

‘He also has a task-force called the X-Men, made up from former students.’

Pepper lifted a finger. ‘Okay, there I draw the line.’

Dr. Strange shook his head. ‘They’re all in it voluntarily, and may leave at any time they wish. The problem with him is that he _over_ protects the children in his care. When they step out into the world, it is clear that they really have no comprehension of the xenophobic hate and fear they are subject to. They hear the words, but it’s so far outside the realm of their experience that they cannot take the warnings on board. In fact, the only ones I ever heard of surviving or not disappearing into the ether are the X-Men – the members of the taskforce.’

‘So, that’s not good either,’ Morgan said. ‘Is there a third option?’

‘I’m sure we can find a discreet electrokinetic who can teach you how to use your powers,’ Strange said. ‘I can think of a couple off the top of my head who will train you and keep their mouths shut about it.’

***

‘Right, your hands are going to be the main point you use for your power. Focus on your fingertips. Concentrate, and let that warm tingling move up your arm. Focus it.’

Morgan started at the hand she had propped up. She blocked out everything else.

She blocked out the fact that Rhodey was helping those idiots who’d allowed her father to die. She blocked out the fact that he knew there was something wrong with the way they operated, even now, and he turned the other cheek. She blocked out her worry for him in the situation he had willingly put himself in.

She blocked out the anger that came from the knowledge that S.H.I.E.L.D. was sheltering them again. That they, once again, suffered no consequences for their stupid actions. And she was still confused as hell as to how a sergeant could give orders to a Captain and a Colonel just because Steve Rogers handed him a vibranium shield and decreed he be the new Captain America.

Come to think of it, didn’t the story go that Thanos broke that thing? How in the hell was it in one piece to give to Wilson?

_Focus!_

She blocked out the knowledge that their actions, and the dismissal of the Sokovia Accords at the time of the Infinity Wars, had laws be introduced which constricted the rights of all enhanced in America – laws which the Avengers got out of because of their connection to S.H.I.E.L.D.

She pushed aside the fact that even though her father was glorified as the greatest hero of the 21st Century, who died saving the universe, no one took a moment to remember what he’d really been trying to do.

Morgan ignored all of that and focused on the warm tingling in her arm. She focused on pushing it down her arm and into her hand, up her fingers. She focused on the warmth and the power inside of her. She focused on doing what she was told, and cleared her mind of everything else that could hinder her.

Electricity crackled around her fingers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I was thinking about it and I looked up the differences between a counsellor and a mediator. A counsellor focuses on the deep stuff, past events for current causes and the likes. A mediator is more short-term. He or she is focused on finding out where each party stands now and getting their participants immediate help. Granted the info I found was more based on marriage mediation or counselling, what we see of Sam and the fact that he can just drop everything to join the Avengers suggests to me that he's a mediator, not a counsellor.
> 
> Plus becoming a counsellor takes about 4 years (on average) whereas becoming a mediator is a short course.
> 
> Add in his military career - using the actor's age as a marker then he should have been 18 in 1996. There's a further 18 years between then and 2014, when he met Steve.
> 
> It's never specified exactly how long he was in the armed forces before Riley fell, but I'd definitely still say he's more likely to have been a mediator.
> 
> ***
> 
> It came to my notice that Disney has the rights for Marvel, the X-Men, and F4. I also found a video speculating that the Ancient One knew about Mutants and may have even shared that information with Strange, because she knew he'd be the next Sorcerer Supreme. However, I found an article that purported that Disney had said there wouldn't be an X-Men movie for a very long time.
> 
>  
> 
> _Me: Hm...A very long time? Long enough, then, for Morgan to grow up and gain mutant powers?_


	2. Years On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little Morgan Stark is all grown up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daddy would be so proud.

A woman with long brown hair strode through the hallways on black heels that looked like they could be weapons in their own right. The woman looked like she could be either a model or a celebrity. The latter was the accurate description, but not in the conventional way. She walked through the offices of Stark Industries and came to the lift. The doors opened as she approached and she didn’t say a single word.

When the lift stopped and opened, she strode out.

This particular floor was restricted to all except for the very top in this company. She strode right across to the board room and opened the door. Everyone was on their feet in an instant. Her brown eyes surveyed them all as she walked around and took her seat in the CEO’s chair. She then interlocked her fingers on the table in front of her.

‘I hope,’ she said, ‘that the recent course of events have discouraged anyone else from trying to plant their can in this chair.’ She surveyed the room again, taking note of who looked nervous, who was accepting, and who was stoic. ‘Now, to business.’ She lifted a perfectly manicured hand and clicked. A hologram appeared over the table, displaying a graph, and began rotating so that everyone could see it. She sat back, folded her arms, and rolled her neck. ‘I’m glad to see that incidents of aggression against inhuman and mutant employees have decreased significantly.’

One man of the board cleared his throat. ‘Yes, well...It seems those simulations you introduced as part of the induction training for baseline employees have done wonders for their empathy towards these minorities.’

His neighbour, a middle aged woman who had served under both Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, gave him a dry response. ‘I believe that was the idea.’

The CEO gave the slightest smirk. ‘Next on the agenda...’ She waved her hand and a new graph appeared. ‘Stocks.’

This went on for another two hours. During that time, the CEO’s cell phone beeped with a text, but she ignored it. _Never answer your phone when you’re dealing with the board._ That was rule number 1 that mom had taught her. Actually rule number 1 was: _If you pay them, or provide services for them, they’re not your friends._

Her mother had been determined that she never fall into the same traps her father had.

The CEO sat there and watched the board members file out. She sat there, waiting, until the last one was gone. Then, she sat for a further minute. Judging it to be safe, she rolled up her sleeve and looked at her phone. _1 Message – Peter Parker._ She tapped on the screen. Pete was one of her oldest friends, and she was Godmother to his only child, May Parker. Even though he was still Spider-Man, he technically worked as a special operative for the QPD.

She had a good chuckle as she remembered how that’d come about.

Then she read the message: _Found something you may want a look at. Meet you in your office._

The CEO stood up and strode out of the room. Once again, she took the lift. This time she took it to the very top floor. When she stepped out, she looked at her PA at the front desk. ‘Anything to report?’

‘No, ma’am.’

‘Good. When’s my next appointment?’

‘Not until tonight, ma’am. There’s a charity banquet for the Maria Stark Foundation.’

She nodded. ‘Thank you.’ She stepped through the door into her own office. ‘Sound-proof, FRIDAY.’

The Irish accent of the AI came through the speakers. ‘You got it, Boss Jr.’

She was already looking at the early middle-aged man sitting behind her desk at her computer. With a quirk of her lips, she asked, ‘Does my PA know you’re in here, Petey?’

‘Do your mutant employees know you’re one of them, Morgan?’

Morgan Stark chuckled. ‘Touché.’ She walked over and shooed him out of her chair. ‘So, what have you got?’

‘Found this while I was filling in free time at work,’ Peter said.

‘“Filling in free time”, huh? Is that what they’re calling it?’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘Hang on, this is...?’ She leaned back and looked up at him, eyes glinting in amusement. ‘Haven’t they cleaned that up yet? I’d think Fury wouldn’t want his dirty little secrets to still be splashed all over the web.’

Peter smirked. ‘Well, you know as well as I do that once something goes on the web, it’s there forever. No amount of hacking is going to take that away.’

‘True.’ Morgan tapped the hologram a few times. ‘Darkforce.’ She looked at Peter again. ‘What’s Darkforce?’

‘No idea. All I could find was a link to something called Zero Matter. There’s a plethora of information on that in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s dropped files. Apparently,’ he leaned over and moved through the data, ‘your grandfather wanted to study it in the 40s, but Peggy Carter shut him down. Seems she felt he wanted to use it to make more money.’

‘Of course she did,’ Morgan grumbled. ‘I mean, it’s not like he was a scientist or anything!’ She sorted through more data and scoffed. ‘And look at this. She allowed other people to study it in order to create a portal into the Darkforce Dimension – and the term was coined in the 1960s by...Hercules?’ She looked up at Peter. ‘As in _the_ Hercules? Demigod son of Zeus? Twelve Tasks Hercules? That Hercules?’

‘Looks that way.’ Peter opened a separate file. It was old and clearly originally made the old-fashioned way – prior to computer profiles. He was listed as immortal, and his capabilities were listed in extreme detail. There was also a large stamp over the sheet. Morgan cocked an eyebrow. ‘Removed? Removed to where?’

‘I dunno, but it’s an anomaly,’ Peter said. ‘When I was going through these Enhanced Persons Records, this was the only one that had “removed” on it. Some of them didn’t have a stamp at all, some had “deceased” stamped across them, and some had “apprehended” stamped there.’

Morgan pressed her lips together. ‘FRIDAY, move this to the lab.’ She stood up.

As she strode to the door which led to her private lab, behind her office, Peter followed. ‘What are you looking for?’

‘Well, Hercules is the only one with “removed” across his file, and they seem a little too familiar with his limitations for my comfort level. On top of that, he quoted “Darkforce” at them. Call me paranoid, but I have a feeling there’s something to find in there.’

Morgan held her hand over to lock of the door to the lab. It was an odd lock, with a circular shape and five small circles all around it. It looked more like an odd decoration than a door handle. But Morgan held her hand over it, positioning her digits over each of the circles. Electricity sparked out of her fingertips, for only a second, and hit the circles. The door slid open.

Morgan and Peter walked in.

The data appeared in the middle of the floor and Morgan walked right over to it. She immediately started manipulating the holograms, searching through everything she could. ‘FRIDAY, let’s cross-reference Hercules, Darkforce, and Peggy Carter. See what we can find.’

‘Right away, Boss Jr.’

The data started processing in front of their eyes.

‘What, exactly, are you looking for?’ Peter asked.

‘I’m not entirely sure,’ Morgan said. ‘I’ve just got this feeling...’

‘One file recovered, Boss Jr.,’ FRIDAY reported.

Morgan nodded. ‘Okay, lay it on me.’

The file appeared in front of them. It made both of them jerk back.

Morgan’s eyes widened. ‘Shit!’

‘To say the least.’ Peter’s eyes were just as wide. ‘What are we gonna do about this?’

Morgan frowned and rolled her sleeve up again. As she manipulated her phone, she said, ‘Question: who’s the one person that actually knows about interdimensional travel?’

Peter didn’t even have to think. ‘Strange?’

‘Strange.’ She hit the call button, and then folded her arms. The earpiece and microphone clipped to her ear slid around into call position. ‘Hey, Doc.’ Whatever he said in response made her grin. ‘Well, you’re a doc, so I call you doc. _Any_ way, Pete just found something I think you’re gonna wanna take a look at.’

He obviously asked what it was, because that was obviously the question she answered.

Almost immediately after, the earpiece slid back into inactive position. Morgan looked at her watch – which was part of her phone, of course. Less than a minute later, a golden portal opened in the lab and Strange stepped out. He was followed closely by Wong. The two of them looked at the data that was still hanging in the air and they both frowned.

Stephen Strange was just the one who was vocal about what they were all thinking.

‘That bitch.’

***

**2023 – What Morgan Doesn’t Fully Remember**  
Pepper watched as Steve took a deep breath – it was odd looking at him like this, an old man.

‘Peg was...well, I idealised her before I returned to the past. I trusted her far more than I should have. I never realised what a... She didn’t like people having more power than she did, and I never realised how dangerous that was. It was what she did to Howard. His genius was a form of power that made her nervous, so she got him under control – on a leash as it were. She liked to hold leashes on everyone around her.’

‘Come to the point,’ Pepper said with very well-disguised impatience.

Steve sighed. ‘There were people...who could have saved Tony. They could have stopped things from going like they did. They weren’t here...because I opened my big fat mouth. I told Peg about them, and she jumped on them. If she couldn’t indoctrinate them into S.H.I.E.L.D., she’d kill or imprison them. If she couldn’t do that...well, she’d get rid of them some other way. I don’t know why, and I don’t know how, but somewhere...She got the idea that people with powers were threats that she, specifically, needed to control.’

Morgan Stark watched from the top of the stairs.


	3. The Darkforce Dimension

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morgan, Strange, and Peter decide to access the Darkforce Dimension.

‘The Darkforce Dimension,’ Strange said, ‘is a realm made up entirely of unstable matter. If there’s someone trapped inside, we want to get him out as fast as possible, though I can’t say what state his mind will be in when we get him out.’

‘Does him being a demigod help?’

‘It should significantly aid in him keeping his mind. Let’s just hope he is who we think he is.’ He took a deep breath. ‘The first thing we need is a sample of Darkforce.’

Morgan nodded and clicked. A holographic screen appeared behind her.

‘Really?’ Peter Parker asked in only half-disbelief.

Morgan clicked her tongue. ‘Yeah. Apparently, the Avengers HQ is so dissued by the actual Avengers that they’re storing it there.’

‘You know what?’ Peter said. ‘That doesn’t surprise me a bit.’

Dr. Strange shook his head. ‘Nothing with S.H.I.E.L.D. surprises me anymore.’

Peter scowled. ‘Yeah. Me neither.’

***

This job fell to Peter.

Faith, he mused, as he slipped up the side of the building in his stealth suit, was a funny thing. Some people would validate the faith you had in them, like Tony did. And some people would let you down – like certain people who should remain nameless. It was better when those people acknowledged their mistakes but…

Well, seeing as it wasn’t really him – not the him that’d done the letting down – it didn’t really count. Sure, that one was responsible for some let-downs but not the ones that’d affected anyone still alive. Peter cringed under his mask. Thankfully, he was distracted from this thoughtpath by the comm. in his ear.

‘Spidey, I’ve put all security cameras on a loop,’ Morgan said in his ear. ‘FRIDAY’s sent Karen the movements of the security guards. I guess you know your way around the place.’

‘Like the back of my hand.’ Peter slipped inside through an entrace designed for the Falcon or Captain Marvel as Morgan opened it remotely for him. He didn’t doubt that she was concealing the access from the entirely digital security systems at S.H.I.E.L.D.’s home base. ‘Oh, my God. They haven’t changed this place a bit.’

‘Well, from what I can tell, it’s just a rendezvous point for meetings or calls for the Avengers to assemble.’

Peter nodded to himself. ‘You want all of the vials, don’t you?’

‘I don’t trust them with the Darkforce. They did this once. What’s to stop them from doing it again? On top of that, that shit’s unstable. I’m not leaving it with them.’

Peter smirked to himself as he crawled along the ceiling. ‘And you’re a teeeeny bit miffed about what happened with your grandpa.’

He could just about see her smirk as she answered that one. ‘I reserve the right to be as petty as I like.’

Peter chuckled. ‘Well…you’re responsible everywhere else – except when you’re trolling the media.’

Morgan snorted. ‘Did you see the last one?’

Peter bit back his own snort. ‘Please. Don’t make me laugh.’

‘Yeah.’ Morgan calmed herself. ‘Right. So…the Darkforce is kept in that room just ahead and to the left.’

Peter looked ahead and he frowned. ‘There’s a guard at the door.’

‘Is he even awake?’ Morgan asked. ‘My data says that the guys stationed here, barring the heads of security, are green or no-hopers.’

‘Really?’ That seemed kind of careless for what was supposed to be kept in here.

‘Not something I’d do, but mom always did say that Fury was a cocky bastard.’

Peter smirked as he imagined Pepper using that language. ‘Did she use quite that language?’

‘Not quite, no. Hang on. I’m gonna triple-check this. You get the Darkforce.’

Carefully, and paying very close attention to his spider-sense, Peter crept closer. Moving swiftly, he knocked out the guard. The door opened for him almost instantly. There were obviously security lines in the room because his spider-sense guided him to flip and weave through them. So...obviously Fury had outfitted this place. But Peter still knew his way around.

Attaching to the ceiling, Peter spun his webs and lowered himself down. He pulled out the override key Morgan had given him. The vault door opened up easily. Inside, there were several vials of black liquid. Too many for Peter to be anything close to comfortable. Extending out his free hand, Peter webbed the vials up.

***

‘There were a few back-ups,’ Morgan said as she soldered one part of the machine while Peter wired the switchboard. ‘Triggers in the locks which would’ve told Fury instantly if I hadn’t overriden them. ‘Those security laser lines you dodged around were actually moving. Not very fast, but they were moving.’

‘And the guard?’ Peter asked.

‘Chip implanted in his brain which would alert S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ if he was rendered unconscious. FRIDAY took care of that. They won’t even know until the next time Coulson goes for one of these.’ She waved her free hand at the box which now held the Darkforce vials. ‘Let’s operate with the assumption that they all have one of those chips.’

Dr. Strange, with no mechanical expertise, sat on the sidelines. He rubbed his goatee. ‘The brain is fitted very specifically into the skull. By implanting a chip, one part of the brain will be compressed, no matter how small the chip. I’m concerned about how that affects the agents with these implants.’

Peter glanced over at him. ‘Well, what could happen?’ he asked seriously.

‘The brain is significantly more elastic than one would assume,’ Strange said, ‘but, that chip, I would imagine, would behave very much like a tumour.’

‘Except it doesn’t grow,’ Morgan pointed out.

‘That would be the only exception. Another possibility would be to compare it to cerebral compression. This happens when the cerebralspinal fluid – the liquid that cushions the brain from the skull – increases in pressure and causes stress on the brain. It’s usually the result of a head injury. Victims can experience headaches, dizziness, drowsiness, vomiting, and progressively lose consciousness.’

‘FRIDAY?’ Morgan set her soldering iron aside and flicked her goggles up.

‘Yes, Boss Jr.?’

‘Don’t let anyone see you, but go into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s databanks. Find out if this does happen.’

‘Right away.’

Strange nodded and stood up. ‘Is it ready?’

‘Almost...’ Morgan stepped back.

Peter did too. ‘We just have to run a simulation to see if it’ll work.’

***

‘How the fuck did this even happen?’ Fury demanded.

No one could answer him.

There was nothing on the cameras.

The guard hadn’t seen a thing.

None of the alarms had been triggered.

He’d almost suspect Stark’s Girl, but she had no idea this place existed.

***

‘Okay,’ Morgan said. ‘We’ve got DUM-E, U, and Butterfingers out of the room. Especially DUM-E.’

‘Something wrong with DUM-E?’ Strange asked.

Peter grinned. ‘He likes the fire extinguisher a little too much.’

Strange chuckled and nodded. ‘All right.’ He frowned. ‘Where did you get the schematics for this?’

‘It was in grandpa’s archive,’ Morgan said. ‘FRIDAY found it. Apparently, he built one of these in 1947. Why is a long story. According to his notes, the major design flaw was that you had to get close to turn it on and off. And, as soon as the portal was open, it was accompanied by a vacuum, of sorts.’

‘That is a major design flaw,’ Peter remarked. ‘I presume you’ve corrected it?’

‘I didn’t manage to eliminate the vacuum, so I presume that’s a natural feature.’ She held up a small device. ‘But I did manage to build a remote control for it.’

Peter chuckled and picked up one of the vials. He walked over and opened a hatch before pouring the sickly black liquid in. He then closed the hatch and sprung back. Once he was sufficently far away, Morgan lifted the remote and tapped the screen with her thumb. The small device lit up.

The portal machine began to quietly hum. Then, it opened up. A red glow was emitted as a black swirling orb appeared overhead. It looked like a small dark planet. Morgan marvelled at it for a moment. But then Strange stepped forward. With a few precise movements, the golden circles, characteristic of the Masters of the Mystic Arts, appeared around his wrists and hands. Then he moved his hands as of holding a rope.

The power shot out from him in a line and into the portal.

For a few tense moments, Morgan and Peter stood there. They waited and watched as Dr. Strange used his mystical rope to search the Darkforce Dimension for a single person. Then his eyes twitched – aha! – and he yanked back. With a lot less time and effort than it’d taken to find the only person trapped in the dimension, he pulled him back out.

A person came flying out.

Strange’s magic disappated. Morgan clicked the remote again. The portal closed.

The figure on the ground – a tall man with a bulky, muscular frame – groaned and shifted, arms lifting over his face. It didn’t take a genius – which all three of them were – to work out what the problem was.

‘FRIDAY,’ Morgan kept her voice low. ‘Lights down by 95%.’

The lights dimmed into near total darkness. The windows darkened, blocking out the sunlight. The three of them cautiously crept closer to the man, who seemed to be catching his breath. All Morgan could really see of him was torn and worn clothes, that certainly looked modern enough, and long scraggy dark hair.

‘Strange,’ Morgan said softly. ‘What is he looking at, realistically speaking?’

‘I’m...not sure.’ Strange spoke just as softly. ‘All accounts of the Darkforce Dimension indicate there is no light, no sound, and no other life forms. If he was a regular man, I’d expect advanced stages of the effects of solitary confinement. But he’s a demigod. I don’t know how his brain’s different.’

Slowly...the man lifted his head...brown eyes skated over all of them. ‘I...’ He spoke in good english, but with a strange accent, and a hoarse voice. ‘I have been freed?’

‘You have,’ Morgan said. ‘And I apologise for the wait, but we only just found out.’

Then the man slowly pushed himself up and he looked around at them. ‘Name yourselves?’

‘I’m Peter Parker,’ Peter was the first.

‘Dr. Stephen Strange, the current Sorcerer Supreme of the Masters of the Mystic Arts.’

‘Morgan Stark.’

Hercules looked at her. ‘Stark? The progeny of Howard Stark?’

‘His granddaughter, specifically.’ She shook her head. ‘I never met him. He was murdered when my father was 17.’

Hercules’ eyes narrowed. ‘It does not surprise me.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life's full of questions: How does Hercules know Howard? How did Hercules end up in the Darkforce Dimension? (Actually, that one's probably a little obvious.) Why is Hercules not surprised to learn that Howard had been murdered? How does Hercules view Morgan, as the granddaughter of Howard?
> 
> I'll tell you later - most of which in the next chapter.
> 
> (And, yes, I'm done being dramatic.)


	4. A Few Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hercules asks a few questions, answers a few, and FRIDAY gives Dr. Strange the answer to his questions.

‘How did you find me?’ Hercules asked after he’d become reaccustomed to the brightness of Earth and devoured the food that’d been put in front of him. He looked like a ravenous wolf. But, then again, there wouldn’t have been any food in the Darkfeance Dimension. Peter was actually kind of amazed he hadn’t withered away to nothing. It might’ve been the demigod biology, or it might’ve been something in the Darkforce Dimension that preserved him.

‘That’s Peter’s story.’ Morgan handed the demigod a drink. ‘I hope you don’t mind whiskey. I don’t have any beer.’

‘Whiskey is fine.’ Hercules just about drowned it. Then he looked at Peter.

‘I’m a specialised operative for the Queens Police Department,’ Peter told him. ‘Because I’m a last resort before they call in specialised task forces, I’ve got a lot of free time. About 20 years ago, all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s databanks ended up on the internet where anybody could access them.’ He saw the curious look in Hercules’ eyes. ‘Long story. But when information goes onto the internet, it’s there forever. So, I sifting through it and I found the file on you.’

‘And you decided to help me?’ Hercules asked.

‘I wouldn’t even trap my most dangerous enemies in the Darkforce Dimension,’ Dr. Strange remarked.

‘And, as far as we could tell, your only “crime”,’ Morgan said the word with heavy scorn, ‘was being an immortal Greek demigod that refused to be folded into S.H.I.E.L.D.’s ranks under Carter’s power, and then turning out to be beyond their ability to kill, drug, or contain by conventional methods.’

Hercules gave a bitter laugh. ‘That harpy would not listen to that which she did not desire to hear. I told her that her methods were dangerous to the free world she was claiming to protect. I told her that regimes as hers throughout history had always crumbled as a result of its own methods.’

‘So she decided to get rid of you.’ Morgan nodded with a bitter smile. The look fell of her face after a moment. ‘But how does my grandfather fall into this?’

Hercules frowned and took a deep breath. ‘Your grandfather was a man that truly believed he was working for the greater good. I said to him exactly as I said to the harpy. Unlike her, though, he considered it. He asked me why I said what I did, and he listened to my answers. He was a good man surrounded by liars and murderers; the only one truly interested in making this world a better place. I heard that he had a fractious relationship with his son, but I expect that was due to all of the time and resources S.H.I.E.L.D. monopolised from him. I had hoped my words could assist in mending the rift.’

Peter frowned. ‘Well, that might explain why Carter had the murders covered up. She may have been complicit in the order to kill them.’

‘I do not doubt,’ Hercules said. ‘The harpy treated your patriarch in an appalling manner when he lived. Why should she change for his death? I should like to deal with her myself.’

‘I’m afraid you’re a bit late for that,’ Morgan told him. ‘She’s been dead longer than I’ve been alive.’

‘Of course she has,’ Hercules grumbled.

With a light smile, Strange changed the subject. ‘You seemed familiar with my title.’

‘I am,’ Hercules told him. ‘The sorcerers have been protecting humanity against mystical threats for centuries. And I believe one of your sanctums exists in this city. It does not surprise me to see the Sorcerer Supreme was the one who pulled me out.’

‘I met a couple of Asgardians who seemed unfamiliar with the concept,’ Strange pointed out.

‘Asgardians?’ Hercules let out a boisterous laugh. ‘The Gods of the Vikings are a warrior culture that place physical prowess above all else. You can see it reflected in the culture of the Vikings themselves. I concede the Norsemen were lacking food, and they did need to go other places to find it, and most do not part willingly with their hard-earned daily bread, especially without warning. My people, however, were one of the pillars of modern Western Society. We were civilised in the ways the Vikings were not. We begat the fathers of philosophy and we created the bedrock of democracy.’

Peter chuckled. ‘Greeks were intellectuals who talked to people. The Vikings were raiders who attacked people.’

‘Generally, yes,’ Morgan remarked. ‘I mean, you heard Rhodey’s stories about how Thor didn’t give a single hoot about intelligence unless it helped him in battle in some way.’ She shrugged. ‘I mean, look at the way they treated Loki.’

‘Yes,’ Strange sounded rather annoyed at that. It was probably on account of the whole thing where he found out that Loki had been forced to carry out that invasion only _after_ the man had died. ‘No wonder the poor man was so messed up.’

‘Speaking of messed up, Dr. Strange,’ FRIDAY cut in, ‘I have the results you requested.’

‘Oh, yes?’ Dr. Strange asked, looking up.

Hercules glanced up. ‘A servant?’

‘Of a sort,’ Morgan said.

‘The early experiments with the chips did have participants suffering with the dizziness, headaches, drowsiness, vomiting, and loss of consciousness that you described. Even permanent brain damage and death was eventually experienced.’

Strange scowled. ‘Yes?’

‘However, S.H.I.E.L.D. found a way around this.’ FRIDAY’s voice tightened. ‘But at a terrible cost. They found they could bypass these...complications by removing a part of the brain and sliding the chip into the hole.’

There was a silence in the room.

Hercules even froze in his meal consumption.

‘...Which part?’ Peter asked.

‘A section of the amygdale.’

Morgan looked at Strange in question.

‘The amygdale is the part of the brain responsible for processing emotions.’ Even as he said it, Strange’s voice was tight as a drum.

‘How nice to see their methods have not changed,’ Hercules remarked bitterly.

***

Morgan stepped onto the podium, sunglasses in place.

It was a trick that her mother had taught her. And her father had taught her mother. It was likely he’d had to learn it through bitter experience, though. Even now, deep in the digital age, flashes on cameras were still a problem. Morgan waited for them to die down before she took her sunglasses off.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming on such short notice,’ she said. ‘I have called this press conference because of a detail that has come to my attention. As we all know, twenty years ago, all of the databanks of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division was dumped online in one of the most ill-considered moves in history. This information is still accessible, even as the organisation rebuilt itself and started anew. I have called you here today because an associate has discovered a practice among S.H.I.E.L.D. I am here to insist that an investigation be launched to ensure such a thing is not still occurring.’

She paused, waiting for the reporters to get their bearings.

She then went on. ‘The procedure is the removal of a small part of the amygdale to implant a microchip in the brain of S.H.I.E.L.D. recruits who were underperformers or otherwise unsatisfactory. For those who do not know. The amygdale is the part of the brain associated with processing emotion. The microchip in question is programmed to alert the main command centre of S.H.I.E.L.D. if the individual is incapacitated or compromised in any way.’

Morgan’s eyes narrowed.

‘All evidence suggests that this is done to these people with their consent, yes, but without fully informing them as to what is being done to their brains to make room for the microchip. The information from which this was discovered is now being transmitted to your phones.’

All of the phones around the room beeped and all the reporters lifted their wrists to take a look.

***

Fury glared at the screen.

His life would be so much easier if Stark’s widow hadn’t told their daughter exactly what’d happened. Sure, he didn’t expect her to do what they did to Stark himself: tell a lie with the unfortunate side-effect of making the child hate the parent. Not to cover _their_ asses.

Fury remembered when he’d found out that Potts had donned an armour of her own – one she clearly already knew how to use. Given that Stark and Rhodes both had to train to be able to manoeuvre in their suits (despite what certain people had liked to think), it stood to reason that Potts had done this.

He’d been hoping that, despite the loss of Iron Man, he’d still had War Machine and Rescue. He was out of luck though: War Machine technically was a military operative and they could only get him when the situation was dire enough. Rescue...Well, turned out Potts’s main problem with Iron Man hadn’t been Stark.

It’d been the Avengers.

And she was more focused on raising her daughter than she was on Rescue. And she had a healthy upbringing, so she wasn’t susceptible to their manipulations. Or maybe that was because she knew their methods and she knew manipulation was the name of their game. She’d certainly ensured they couldn’t get anyone anywhere near Morgan.

Fury had made the mistake of thinking Stark was the one with all the real power between those two, even if he didn’t know it. He’d severely underestimated the power that Potts herself wielded as well. It was stupid, when he thought of it. She was a woman who thrived in a male-dominated business. He should have realised she couldn’t do that without power, or without knowing how to use said power.

Now, he was in the unenviable position of having to explain himself to Carol.

‘The practice belonged to Carter,’ Fury said. Wilson was trying to insist it was a lie, but he was on the verge of talking himself into a hole. Losing Spider-Man had been bad enough. ‘I never exercised it though.’

Carol glared at him. ‘The enquiry better find as much Nick, or I’m divorcing the Avengers from S.H.I.E.L.D. We can’t be associated with something like that.’

Maximoff frowned. ‘But what’ll we do if we divorce from S.H.I.E.L.D. They’re supporting us entirely.’ She didn’t bother trying to influence Carol any more. She’d long-ago learned that Carol was not going to bend to her the way the others had and did. Of course, Carol had been in space, and she’d never gone into detail of what she’d learned out there.

Hell! She didn’t even let Maximoff on the team until she’d gone through hours upon hours of therapy and training, and passed a psychological evaluation. Maximoff hated Carol but found that she couldn’t do a damn thing about it. So she tended to avoid her where she could and when she did talk to her it as, as now, to try and undermine her.

Carol frowned at her. ‘Then we’ll do it like everybody else does.’

It never worked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The HC for this story is that, while in space, Carol got an implant that protects her from mental control and/or attack.
> 
> Once he found out about it, Fury asked if she could get him the same thing. She did, and he immediately picked out certain people to also get the implant, including Hill, Coulson, Barton, and Wilson.
> 
> I intend to go into the reasons for his selection later on.


	5. Not Interested

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morgan has no interest in the Avengers.
> 
> She's going to make that crystal clear.

The press swarmed around her.

‘Miss Stark, what do you say to your critics who say you’re just like your father?’

She knew what it was referring to, and she smirked. If it was an attempt at an insult, they’d have to do far better than that. ‘Well, he was just like his father – Howard’s exploits are just far less documented. Or are they referring to the fact that the last two generations of Stark contributed to ending a tyrant that sought to destroy us all?’

She left with no further comment.

***

At his S.H.I.E.L.D.-provided apartment, Sam ground his teeth.

Not only had the investigation Morgan insisted upon shown that there were still S.H.I.E.L.D. agents – some of them quite young – getting these chips implanted in their heads, thus leading Carol to begin the separation of the Avengers from S.H.I.E.L.D., but the girl in question seemed almost smug at the whole thing.

Sam knew he had to do something about it.

Besides, several members of the Avengers (himself included) would have too much trouble finding work. Or, if they did, they wouldn’t be able to guarantee to be on call for emergencies.

***

Morgan was handling her business when the phone rang.

Tapping that section of the holographic screen, she sat back. ‘Yes, Leslie?’

‘There’s a Mr. Sam Wilson here to see you, Miss Stark,’ her PA said. ‘He didn’t make an appointment, but he’s insisting. Do you know him?’

Morgan rolled her eyes. ‘Not personally, but my parents did.’

There was a brief flash of emotion in Leslie’s eyes. ‘Would you like me to tell the receptionist to send him up or send him away?’ She may not have known exactly how the former bosses knew this guy, but she could take an educated guess.

Morgan considered it. She could send him away. She was very busy and she had a company to run. Wanda would probably still egg him on, but she’d be the only one. But Strange had already seen to it that all SI properties were guarded against Wanda’s powers. The Steve Rogers who’d led him into trouble before was gone forever. The Steve Rogers who’d given him the shield and the mantle of Captain America had died a few years ago, so neither of them would egg him on. On the other hand... ‘Send him up. I have a bone to pick.’

Leslie’s smirk was suppressed but Morgan still saw it.

As Morgan prepared for the upcoming “chat”, she asked, ‘FRIDAY, when’s my next appointment?’

‘One hour, twenty-two minutes, Boss Jr.’

‘Well, this is very unlikely to take that long.’

***

Sam had gone in with the full intention to talk to Morgan Stark personally.

It’d only taken a small amount of arguing with the receptionist before he was sent up. When the PA showed him in, he was surprised. He hadn’t seen Morgan Stark up close since her father’s funeral – at which he’d felt increasingly unwelcome. She’d been a little girl then, and now she was a sitting there with meticulously styled hair, perfectly-done make-up, with a movie-star manicure and wearing a pant suit that looked like it’d cost a small fortune. She was also wearing the same expression Pepper had worn in front of him since the final battle against Thanos.

Regardless, she didn’t look like the engineering ace she was purported to be.

‘Mr. Wilson,’ she said, not even bothering to stand up. ‘It is traditionally considered bad manners to drop in without calling first.’

Despite the fact that she was only in her twenties and he was in his fifties, Sam winced at the light reprimand. He remembered what Nat had said about Pepper back in the day: she was the living embodiment of “diplomacy is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they’ll enjoy the trip”. It looked like she’d taught that particular skill to her daughter.

‘I wanted to talk to you about the Avengers,’ Sam said.

He was startled when she barked out a bitter laugh. ‘You mean the Senior League? I mean, think about it. You’re in your fifties, the Scarlet Witch is in her forties, and there are several people speculating that her powers, and the way in which she got them, is causing various mental disorders, the White Wolf’s age is catching up with him, as he himself has openly said publically. Who’s left? Marvel’s ageing was affected by the experiments the Kree did on her to make her, you know, Captain Marvel. Thor helps when he comes back, but that doesn’t happen very often anymore, does it?’ She nodded her head. ‘The Wasp, I grant, is only about fifteen to twenty years older than me, and even she’s said it’s only another ten years before she hangs up the suit.’

‘But that’s exactly it!’ And there was nothing in that which Sam could argue with. Bucky Barnes was physically around Sam’s age and the stress of the metal arm – Wakandan technology or no – plus the life he’d lived had begun to wear his body down enough that he was making some noise about retiring. Cassie Lang had made it clear that she only intended to use the suit for another ten years or so, because she knew the effect shrinking had on a body after it hit a certain age.

Wanda...well, even Carol had been expressing concerns about Wanda’s mental state – and she didn’t like her. She seemed to be forgetting things more and more as the years went on. And she didn’t like being in crowded rooms; said everyone’s thoughts were too loud. Sam tried to ignore it, but he knew the general public had noticed too and speculated about it to hell and back.

Thor...well, he helped when he was on Earth but that was increasingly rarer and rarer. He was usually on New Asgard, ruling his people and worrying about their problems. And Sam himself was wearing down. Fights took a hell of a lot out of him, and he barely even used Steve’s shield to fight, electing mostly to use it for its traditional purpose.

Morgan inclined her head curiously.

‘We need help—’

Morgan cut him off with a bout of hysterical laughter.

‘What’s funny?’ Sam demanded.

‘You,’ she said. ‘You idiots got my father killed, and you have the gall to come here and ask me for help? Of course it’s funny.’

‘We didn’t get Tony killed!’ Sam insisted. ‘He chose to sacrifice himself for the greater good. He died—’

‘I know how he died,’ Morgan snapped. ‘He died using the Infinity Gauntlet, which no baseline can survive, to destroy Thanos before he could do the same to the rest of the universe. But he shouldn’t have had to. Why did he?’

‘Thanos wouldn’t stop!’ Sam insisted, trying to make her understand. ‘It had to be done!’ And it was years ago. She should have come to terms with it by now.

Morgan cocked an eyebrow, looking scarily like her father. ‘Why by him?’

Sam drew back, surprised. ‘What?’

‘No baseline could survive using that thing.’ Morgan now stood up and leaned forward on her desk. ‘So why was a baseline the one to Snap Thanos away. I understand the Hulk not doing it. He’d already snapped everyone else back into existence, and severely damaged his arm in the process. But why couldn’t someone else do it? Why couldn’t Captain Marvel or Captain America? Why couldn’t Thor? What about Maximoff? She wanted to kill Thanos, didn’t she? Then why didn’t she take the Gauntlet and do it like that? Why did Tony Stark have to do it?’

Sam tried to think of an answer; anyway to answer that. The fact was that he had no idea. In that moment, he didn’t know where Carol was or where Steve was. He didn’t know where Thor or Wanda were. He realised he couldn’t even remember where he himself was. He remembered hearing that there’d been a struggle over the Gauntlet between Tony and Thanos – which would have been the perfect opportunity for someone else to grab it. He had no way of knowing if there was a legitimate reason no one did.

So...he stood there, looking like a landed fish as he tried to think of an answer.

Morgan just nodded after a moment or two and sat back down. ‘Even if you hadn’t gotten dad killed, your philosophy is too far removed from mine. I wouldn’t help you for the same reason that Peter left you.’

That threw him too. ‘What...?’

Morgan looked at him doubtfully. ‘Don’t tell me you didn’t know? Peter told us exactly what he said. He was perfectly clear about it. Your lack of respect for authority cost you Spider-Man.’

Sam shook his head. ‘What we do is beyond what they’re equipped to deal with.’

‘Bullshit. And it doesn’t explain why you don’t even do them the dignity of communicating with them so that civilian populations can be evacuated before the fighting starts.’ Morgan glared at him. ‘Peter’s parents died when he was little. His aunt and uncle became his parents. His uncle was a police officer who died in the line of duty. By spitting on the jobs of the authorities, you spit on people like Ben Parker, and Peter would never tolerate that.’

Morgan turned her chair away from him.

‘Don’t ask for my help again. Now get out.’

***

Hercules took his shot and stepped back with his pool cue. ‘So half of these Avengers are on the brink of being useless.’

‘Pretty much.’ Morgan lined up her own shot. ‘But it’s got me thinking.’

‘What about?’

‘The Avengers have always claimed to be the ones who save the world and protect “the little guy”, even back when my grandfather was alive. But they were really little more than S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA’s specialised taskforce. And then, they were Roger’s Gang. All of their missions were run on ulterior motives.’

‘Do you suppose I would have been folded into an Avengers team if I had conceded to Carter?’

‘I don’t doubt.’ Morgan took her shot. She then straightened up. ‘While it sounds noble at face value “saving the world” is too vague a mission statement. It ends with people doing exactly what Rogers did: using “save the world” and “we’re heroes” as an excuse for everything, from invading foreign nations to destroying a city. Same goes for Fury’s sales pitch.’

Hercules nodded and lined up his own shot. ‘I doubt it was too different to the one they directed at me.’

‘Probably not, no.’

Hercules took his shot. ‘So, what were you planning?’

‘We create a new team.’ Morgan moved back in to take her shot again. ‘But one with a very specific goal, like the others. Take the team from your homeland, for instance. The Greek team, Medo Demos, are dedicated to the protection and preservation of Greek historical sites. They tend to get involved more with battles and issues that concern those sites.’

Hercules nodded. ‘This team you were considering, what would you call it?’

‘I’m not sure yet.’ Morgan took her shot. ‘I’d need to work out what the mission statement would be first, then I can give the team an accurate name. Anti-enhanced sentiment is actually pretty strong around some groups, so I think I might want to focus on that.’

***

A phone call was made.

_‘Hello, 911. What is the nature of your emergency?’_

_‘There’s some mutants in the house down the block.’_

There was a pause. _‘What was the address?’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun, dun, dun!
> 
> See in you in a few weeks!


	6. Inciting Incident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All it took was a little push.

‘Boss Jr.?’

‘Hm?’ Morgan looked up from her latest invention. ‘What’s the matter, FRIDAY?’

‘I just found a police report that you might want to have a look at.’

Morgan set her tools aside and turned to the holographic screen that FRIDAY flicked up for her.

As she read, her expression darkened.

***

**Nottinghamshire, England**  
She had initially turned the TV on as background noise while she worked around the house.

Then the press conference caught her eye. She stopped and leaned on the back of the couch to observe. The first thing that drew her notice was not only the body language of Morgan Stark – the straight back, set jaw, and steely eyes – but the fact that she was not alone on the podium. With her, she had brought Spider-Man, the Sorcerer Supreme, and Hercules, whom this particular woman had not seen in a very long time.

When she took the stand, she didn’t waste time.

‘I won’t be taking questions today,’ she said. ‘I am only here to make an announcement. A few days, an incident occurred that came to my attention. Someone called 911 for no other reason than the fact that there was a small group of mutants in the house down the street. The police then responded with lethal force, resulting in the deaths of the mutants in question.’

The woman scowled. She hadn’t heard of this incident but it wouldn’t surprise her one bit.

‘I’m not sure what disgusts me more,’ Morgan Stark said. ‘The fact that someone thought a small group of mutants, minding their own business and hurting no one, necessitated a 911 call, the fact that the operator agreed with them, or the fact that the police engaged in what amounts to a xenophobic hate crime.’

One of the reporters must’ve gone to say something because Morgan pointed into the crowd. ‘Shut it. If you’re about to try and tell me that they were mutants, so it doesn’t count, that’s exactly what xenophobic means. We, as a society, like to purport that were are above things like racism – that we understand why it is bad and strive to remove it from our lives. Why, then, does this go out the window the moment you mention mutants?’

The woman smirked to herself. Morgan Stark had been grown up to utilise the press to get what she wanted. She had likely organised this to be a live press conference because she knew anything else would allow the media to twist what she was saying. She was putting it out in a way that could not be twisted or altered, could not be ignored, and made everybody watching it feel very uncomfortable.

People did not like to be called out on their faults, and that was exactly what she was doing.

Morgan then stepped around the podium, stood on the edge of her stage and levelled the cameras, more specifically, with a reproving glare. ‘I’ll tell you why. Because you can’t tell just by looking. If we look at the statistics, we find that attacks on mutants with characteristics that mark them as mutants are significantly lower than the attacks their peers suffer. A mutant with blue skin is less likely to find themselves the victim of hate crime than a mutant who looks perfectly human. POCs, Jews, homosexuals, and other minorities like them have people outside of their minorities campaigning for them to be treated equally, but not mutants. Not mutants because you can’t tell a mutant just by looking.’

Morgan shrugged.

‘It could be argued that you can’t tell a Jew or a homosexual just by looking either but most people will tell you that these minorities have a certain look about them, so it can be argued that, yes, you can tell just by looking. Mutants, though, look like everybody else. Hell, I could be a mutant and you’d never know!’ Then she started pointing at random people in the crowd. ‘And you could be a mutant, or you could be a mutant, or you could be a mutant. That’s how much they look like everyone – Anyone could be a mutant!’

She then cast her eyes around the room.

‘And that’s what scares people.’ She leaned back against the podium behind her, almost casually. ‘The Dark Ages was a time when very mundane and simple things could not be explained, so people turned to fear and superstition. Countless men and women were accused of being witches, vampires, and what have you and were murdered in cold blood. Corpses were mutilated and displaced. Prior to the Civil Rights movement, people thought absolutely nothing about lynching people of colour. I can see people in front of me whose grandparents, great-grandparents, lived like that. And why? Because they were stupid? Because they were savage?’ She tapped her chin. ‘Hm...Where have I heard that before?’

There was a dead silence in the room.

Morgan Stark folded her arms. ‘This is not something I am going to tolerate and if this is something being done by the police – the body which are supposed to be protecting the everyday man – then obviously something needs to be done about it. And I am a Stark.’

The Englishwoman smiled as she realised what all the reporters clearly did as well.

‘Iron Man is coming out of mothballs,’ Morgan stated, ‘but Iron Man will no longer be a man.’ She pointed an accusing finger out at the general public. ‘You persecute and ostracise these people – including children – for circumstances beyond their control. Mutants did not choose to become the way they are and if they were going to destroy us all, they would have done it before we even realised they were there.’

Behind her, the three men stood up.

‘If I have to begin a crusade, and return the true meaning of the word to the English language, then I will do so.’ Morgan inclined her head back. ‘Behind me are Spider-Man, the Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Strange, and the Greek Demigod, Hercules. They stand with me on this matter and I invite everyone else who does to join me. If the law will not protect and serve these people, then we will.’

_And so will I._ She crossed over and picked up the phone. ‘Hello. I’d like to book a flight to New York.’ She smiled when she was asked her name. ‘Penelope Hood.’

***

**Westchester, NY, USA**  
Charles Xavier studied the data.

Ever since Morgan Stark’s live press conference, the results had been strangely favourable. Charles had never, in a million years, expected to get support from a figure such as her. And, suddenly, people were debating the issue. Cases of mutant persecution had never been hidden, because no one had really cared.

Suddenly, people were looking these incidents up. There was a few websites already up that had made an inventory of the incidents. The authorities hadn’t realised it would affect anything until people started screaming in outrage. There were protests on the streets and campaigns front, left, right, and centre.

All because one woman stood up and condemned the people involved in a particularly well-documented incident.

A quote came to mind: It only takes one person to make a difference.

Charles had been trying for years; trying to show the world that they needn’t fear mutantkind. He kept his hope up despite how bleak it all seemed. He kept taking in and guiding young mutants as best he could. It turned out, all this time, that he was taking the wrong tactics. Because of what he was seeing here.

Morgan Stark had risen up a support network for mutants, within a week, by shining a light on the shadows. She didn’t appeal to their reason and logic as Xavier had been trying to do. She had appealed to their self-image and their sense of justice. Humanity liked to imagine it was a morally upright benevolent and accepting society, so Morgan Stark had challenged them to be as such.

The results were quite a thing to watch.

***

Magneto stared at the data with narrowed eyes.

‘I don’t trust it,’ Mystique said.

‘No.’ Magneto lifted a hand to his chin. ‘Neither do I. Why would a baseline human care about mutants?’

‘Especially one like that.’ Mystique shook her head. ‘She wouldn’t. But what does she stand to gain from acting sympathetic towards us.’

‘That is what I’m wondering myself.’ Magneto considered it. Charles may be optimistic about the whole thing, but Magneto was under no such delusions. There was no way that she was honestly interesting in _their_ well being. She was a homo sapien. She was clearly up to something in this little publicity stunt.

Mystique made a disgruntled sound. ‘Well, then, how are we supposed to find whatever it is? I’m not content to just sit here and wait for her scheme to unfold.’

Magneto nodded once. ‘Neither am I.’

She looked at him. ‘So...?’

‘So, let’s go and introduce ourselves to this young lady.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, Magneto has no idea that Morgan is a mutant - and she likes it that way.


	7. Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morgan, Peter, Hercules, and Strange get ready to come out as a team the first time.
> 
> Magneto gets ready himself.

Penelope Hood got off the plane and collected her luggage.

The first place she went was the currency exchange station. Then she lifted her wrist and accessed her phone. Tapping out a few things on the screen, she nodded to herself. She was aware of the presence of a few groups that would be hard-pressed to believe Morgan Stark wanted to help them and she’d looked into those groups preceding her boarding the plane back in England.

One, in particular, jumped out at her.

***

‘Are we sure there’s nothing to worry about?’

The head scientist scoffed. ‘Some rich idiot starts campaigning for some kind of equality rights. People are throwing hissy-fits about everything these days. It was only a matter of time.’

‘I know, but it _is_ Morgan Stark. She has the political clout to actually get places.’

‘She’s nothing.’

‘I think you’re underestimating her. What are you going to do if she does a Rosa Parks?’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘The Civil Rights Movement was started because Rose Parks refused to give up her seat for a white person. She inspired everyone else to stand up against the social injustice. What are you going to do if Morgan Stark gets something like that moving?’

‘...We do have contingency plans.’

***

The facility was very well guarded, Penny noted as she walked by it.

It looked like Morgan Stark was conscientious. Then again, she had been raised in the spotlight. She knew that not only would she be setting herself against all those who benefited from the anti-mutant system, but also mutants themselves who’d be suspicious of her. That’s why Penny eyed the person suspiciously through her sunglasses.

On the surface, there was nothing overly suspicious about them. It looked like a man that was part of the crew, but they were examining the metal doors. A member of Stark’s workforce would have no need to do that. Especially, when the man in question walked around the back quickly.

Too quickly.

_Broad daylight, open space. Annoying._

Still, she was experienced enough to manage it. Slipping around, without actually entering the site, and without drawing attention to herself, Penny sought out the man. He seemed to have entirely disappeared. With a frown, Penny lifted her watch and began tapping away at her screen, seeking out what she needed to know.

***

‘So the doors are non-magnetic?’ Magneto asked from behind his desk.

‘I’m afraid so,’ Mystique said. ‘I should still be able to slip in, but you won’t be able to force entry.’

Magneto nodded. ‘She definitely knows what she’s dealing with,’ he said. ‘She must’ve known we would stand against her.’

‘So we were right then?’ Mystique asked. ‘She is up to something.’

‘I’ve no doubt she has full intentions to use mutantkind to her own ends.’

***

Morgan stepped out of the lift into the penthouse living room. She grinned as she saw Hercules struggling with his tie.

‘I suppose you’re not really used to those?’

‘Not really,’ he said. ‘I had enough trouble getting used to clothes that weren’t togas or tunics. I can count the amount of times I’ve worn a tie on one hand.’

‘You need a hand?’ Morgan asked.

‘Please.’

Morgan walked over and, using a technique Grandma Potts had taught her, tied Hercules’ tie. He was about four times her size, so she had him sit down first. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘So, we’ll have to mingle during the party but I’d like us all to leave together.’

‘Why’s that?’ Hercules asked. ‘A united front?’

‘In a manner of speaking.’

FRIDAY helpfully supplied the answer. ‘Boss Jr. is expecting trouble.’

‘Trouble?’ Hercules asked. ‘What kind of trouble?’

‘We’re speaking up for an oppressed minority,’ Morgan said. ‘If history has shown us anything, it’s that those people are often suspicious when outsiders begin to stand up for them.’

‘Oh, yes...’ Hercules looked thoughtful, no doubt remembering the same sort of thing occurring in various points in history. ‘But you’re not an outsider. You’re a mutant yourself.’

‘A fact which will hurt my case more than help it.’ Morgan frowned and stepped back, finished with the tie. ‘Not to mention my stocks. I could tell them, of course, but I’ve done my research on them. I’m not entirely sure they’ll all keep their mouths shut.’

Hercules nodded. ‘So, who are we expecting trouble from?’

‘The loudest malcontents in the mutant community are the Brotherhood of Mutants.’ Morgan clicked and a hologram came up. ‘The leader is a man called Erik Lensherr, better known as Magneto. He’s a former victim of war crimes – happened when he was a kid – and it seems to have broken something in him. His power is magnetic field manipulation.’

A light almost came on over Hercules’ head. ‘That’s why you replaced all of the metal on and around the facility.’

‘Yes. All of it’s non-magnetic now.’ Morgan checked her nails. ‘From my research, Magneto has no problem making a spectacle of himself. And we can’t afford that in front of the press at this point. I’ve also got tricks for various other people.’

Hercules cracked a grin. ‘Knowing you, I’d say you have tricks for everybody you know of.’

Morgan snorted in amusement.

***

Penny sat at the table outside the cafe across the road.

She watched in amusement as a woman was turned away from the doors. She looked surprised but left with minimal fuss. The odds were that they considered it too early to make any kind of fuss here. They wanted to actually get to Morgan Stark first. And then she stormed off. With a light chuckle to herself, Penny downed the rest of her coffee and then moved off to pay.

With that done, she shadowed the woman.

That was always something funny. Mutant or not, they were human enough for her. When people set themselves against someone, they liked to assume they were smarter and more powerful than their opposition. It was a comforting thought to think you were, but that was rarely ever true. And coupled with the knee-jerk tendency to presume other people would behave in the way you would, it was a recipe for disaster.

In this case, that wouldn’t be a bad thing.

***

Stephen Strange stood with Hercules and Peter (in his Spider-Man get-up) as Morgan prepared to make her entrance. The room went dark with the only lights on the stage. With a wry smirk, Stephen watched Morgan make an entrance that would’ve made her father proud. She wasn’t going to show off her new Iron Man suit off.

Instead the entire stage lit up in a gold and red colour scheme and the back wall rotated, revealing Morgan in a classy red and gold dress. The necklace around her neck, Stephen knew, was actually the housing unit for the suit. He’d been impressed that she’d not only managed to get it done already, but camouflage it as a piece of jewellery.

The room broke into applause as she stepped forward and spread her arms theatrically.

Hercules gave a quiet chuckle. ‘I suppose that is a trait that all of the House of Stark share.’

Stephen cocked an eyebrow. ‘From that, I’ll assume that Howard Stark used to do the same thing.’

‘When he was younger, certainly.’

Morgan then spoke up. ‘Well, I’m certainly glad to see everyone here who received an invitation. Of course, I imagine you’re all chomping at the bit to see what I’m going to do next.’ She paused, more for dramatic effect. ‘First of all, I’d like to thank the Maria Stark Foundation and all its affiliated bodies for all their hard work in putting up Mutant Shelters.’

‘Mutant Shelters?’ someone in the crowd called out.

‘Oh, yes,’ Morgan said. ‘One of tonight’s announcements. Due to the fact that a large chunk of mutants are either children or adults that struggle to hold onto employment, simply because they are mutants, the Maria Stark Foundation will be setting up, and funding, several places for these people to acquire food and clothes from, as well as someone to stay overnight. Much like the homeless shelters that operate all over the country now.’

She paused to let the comparison sink in.

‘We’ve already secured a few locations in the state of New York and are currently in negotiations for the same in various other states across the country.’

That was their cue. Stephen let the way out onto the stage behind Morgan.

The woman in question smiled. ‘Now, onto business. I present to you the team which will, from now on, offer out aid to the masses of mutants that are forced to live as they do now. Dr. Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme, Spider-Man, and Hercules. Together, with me, we are here to make the world take another good look at itself, as it has not been forced to do since the Civil Rights Movement.’

At that very moment, the screen above them lit up, spelling out the name of their team above their heads:

_The Crusaders._


	8. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magneto confronts Morgan Stark.
> 
> But then he gets confronted himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to update this. I was hit by a bit of writer's block.

Penny sat up watching the people below her.

If it all went according to plan, she’d be able to stop the Brotherhood and work her magic. She was also very interested in what Morgan Stark’s motives for this were. She might be doing it just because she was outraged, but Penny didn’t think so. This was a massive step, and one with a mountain of risk.

Logically, Morgan Stark had a horse in this race.

***

Magneto lay in wait with his Brotherhood.

More and more people left but they kept waiting for the one they wanted. In fact, there were scarcely any vehicles left by the time the small quartet walked in. Unfortunately, she’d made everything she had – including the parts of her car – non-magnetic. Still, she was just an ordinary homo sapien who was trying to discreetly attack mutants.

Magneto waved a hand and his Brotherhood moved into position.

But then the Stark woman caught him by surprise. ‘Magneto, isn’t it?’

Though surprised, Magneto stepped out of the shadows. ‘You saw me?’

‘I didn’t need to see you.’ Stark turned around and faced him. ‘My AI picked up your shape-shifter trying to gatecrash.’ Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, and Hercules all moved around her, clearly all ready to defend her.

Magneto smirked. ‘If you were so concerned with the plight of mutants, why did you not invite any to your party tonight.’

The cheek of the girl. She gave a cavalier smile and inclined her head. ‘What makes you think I didn’t?’

‘I would know if you had.’ Of that, Magneto was sure. ‘You were born into wealth and privilege. Do you expect me to believe that you have any inkling of the suffering our people are subject to.’

‘Yeah.’ Stark smirked. ‘Like I haven’t heard that before.’

‘Why don’t you explain it?’ Spider-Man asked her.

‘Because he’s the leader of the violent faction,’ Stark said. ‘He came here for a fight.’

Magneto sneered. ‘And yet you did not come prepared.’

‘Are you sure about that?’

Magneto smirked at her. ‘You’re a fool if you think...’

‘Mr. Lensherr, I think you should look up the word “hypocrite” in the dictionary.’

The voice that interrupted him was sudden and British-accented. Magneto spun around. Someone moved fast, coming down from overhead. In a state-of-the-art undercover parking lot, he wouldn’t think there were many places for the woman to hide up there. Yet, a woman landed just off to the side, using Toad as a means to cushion her landing. From the pained grunt he gave, it took him entirely by surprise and he took the largest chunk of the impact.

The woman in question looked young, either in her late teens or early twenties. He couldn’t really say. Her blonde hair was held back with a cloth headband and she wore a skirt that nearly came down to her ankles. There was something...almost magnetic about her green eyes, but that fact passed over Magneto’s mind as more of a subconscious notice than a conscious understanding.

‘Who are you?’ Magneto asked.

‘My name is Penny Hood,’ the Englishwoman said. ‘Now, let me ask you something: What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

‘I don’t have to explain myself to a homo sapien,’ Magneto said.

‘Yes, you do.’

Magneto wasn’t sure what it was, but he gave her a hard look. ‘Do you really expect me to believe that a figure such as Morgan Stark would truly care about the plight of mutants?’

‘And why not?’ Hood asked. ‘Her father, as I recall, started reforming the Sokovia Accords into something tolerable until those idiots he called a team decided to throw their little temper tantrum and convinced the rest of the world that they were dangerous.’

‘Yes, well, that directly affected him, didn’t it?’ Magneto snapped back.

‘I don’t know.’ Hood mused. ‘He could have retired then and there and it wouldn’t have affected him anymore, would it?’

Magneto hated to admit it, but she had a valid point.

Hood then folded her arms. ‘Let’s be honest, I’ve been watching. Your “force” approach has gotten you nowhere. And Xavier’s “appeal” approach has gotten you nowhere. Then Stark comes along and she’s got shelters. She’s got everyday people, without any powers whatsoever, protesting for you, and she’s decreased the amount of mutant hate crimes. What on God’s green Earth are you complaining about?’

Magneto couldn’t think of a satisfactory answer and he hated that. He nodded his head. Toad suddenly spat out his toxic saliva. It flew across and landed right on Hood’s cheek. The acidic venom immediately began to burn through her skin, soon exposing the bone of her jaw. Blood began to drip down. Rather than reacting normally, she turned her head with an expression of mild annoyance.

‘That’s disgusting,’ she said, despite the hole in her jaw. ‘But thank you.’

All of the mutants in the room drew back.

‘...What?’ Magneto breathed out.

Her lips, on the uninjured side of her face, quirked. ‘When you answer an argument or a question by resorting the violence, you are actually conceding that you have no answer. It’s actually a childish way of trying to avoid losing an argument.’

The worst part was...she was right.

Finishing a vocal argument by resorting to violence was the easy way out. It shut the other person up without actually countering their argument. Why hadn’t he thought of that before? It seemed having Toad attack her had done nothing. Magneto stared at the wound as she listlessly blew air through it.

‘Aren’t...you in pain?’ he asked.

‘Oh, certainly,’ the Englishwoman said. ‘But I’ve had worse. Have you ever been hung, drawn, and quartered? Burned on the stake, perhaps? Trust me, that hurts far more than one little hole that’ll be gone in a few hours.’

‘It’s through your bone,’ Magneto pointed out. ‘You’re a mutant?’

‘No. I was not born like this,’ Hood said. ‘It happened later on. And not of my own selection, in case you’re wondering.’

‘Hung, drawn, and quartered?’ Stark drew attention back to herself and her cohort. ‘How old are you?’

Hood looked confused a moment. ‘I’m not entirely sure. Judging by wars that occurred in my early lifetime, I _think_ I was born sometime in the 1170s.’

‘You don’t know?’ Mystique demanded.

Hercules scoffed. ‘Of course not. She was a commoner.’

Stark looked back at him. ‘You know this person?’

‘For years,’ he said. ‘She is a great advocate for social justice.’

‘Which,’ Hood said, ‘brings me to the point of my dropping in.’ She turned back to Magneto. ‘Okay, yes, you don’t trust it. But what if you’re wrong?’ She pointed back at Stark. ‘This woman is lying the groundwork for your people to be brought that social justice. Are you really attacking her simply because you _think_ she might have an ulterior motive? What if she doesn’t? What if she sincerely wants to help you and your people? The world has persecuted you for centuries. This woman has taken the first effective steps to make that stop. Are you really going to attack her on the off-chance that she has her own personal reasons for doing so?’

Magneto went to open his mouth, but he wasn’t sure what to say.

‘Rhetorical question!’ Hood lifted her hands. ‘Yes, so she might have ulterior motives, but does that change the results? Does that change the fact that, for the first time in history, mutants have safe places to go? Does it change the fact that the first legal battle about a mutant hate crime has top notch legal prosecutors who are doing their damnedest to make sure the precedent set is one which will acknowledge the mutants as the victims? Sure, I don’t doubt she has her reasons, but do you know what they are?’ She considered him a moment. ‘Do you?’

Magneto opened and shut his mouth a few times. He wanted to say that she wanted to use mutants for her own agenda but he had a funny feeling she wouldn’t accept that one. After all, he had no proof to speak of. It was just his own suspicions. And Hood was clearly asking him to give her solid proof.

He had none.

Instead, he said, ‘I should risk my people on the off-chance that she really does care about us?’

Hood raised her eyebrow. ‘You should risk your people on the off-chance that she doesn’t?’

And he could not think of an answer for that.

Hood nodded. ‘Well, then. I see we had this confrontation for no reason whatsoever. So, why don’t you head off. You can still keep an eye on things. But as of now, all you have is sheer speculation. What good is that in a rational world?’

Magneto couldn’t find any answers. He looked to his brethren. They all looked unsure...nervous. They, even Mystique, looked like they’d rather be anywhere but here. There was something about this woman, and her arguments that made them all feel as he did. They had come here, rashly, and they may potentially have risked their best chance on speculations.

_Perhaps a strategic retreat is in order._

After all, how did one fight an immortal?

***

Morgan watched in interest as Magneto and his Brotherhood withdrew. She waited until they were gone. ‘That’s very good.’

‘That’s old hat,’ Penny Hood stated. Her voice was different this time though. The firm and almost-ringing tone she’d used when speaking to Magneto was gone.

Morgan looked at Hercules. ‘I was under the impression that the Brotherhood of Mutants were fanatics. Fanatics do not generally give us so easily.’

Hercules nodded. ‘Except when faced with Penny’s secret weapon.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup, Penny is my OC who has basically mastered the Voice (more on that in the next chapter), and I wanted to introduce her by showing just how much power it can give a person.


	9. Penny Hood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for the Crusaders to learn about their new friend.
> 
> Or in Hercules's case, _old_ friend.

Morgan was impressed a few hours later.

All that was left of Toad’s wound on Penny’s face was a red mark.

‘So,’ she said. ‘What exactly does being immortal entail?’

‘Oh, you know, the basics.’ Penny spoke in what Hercules had called her “normal voice”. ‘An inability to die, which results over time in an inhumanly high threshold for pain. Also I heal quicker. But the more severe an injury is, the longer it takes to heal. For instance, a limb will take several months to regenerate.’

At this very moment, Penny was sitting at a table with all manner of manual weapons out in front of her. As a child, Morgan had seen and heard of Hawkeye and thought he was ridiculous for using a bow and arrow. It became more pronounced when, as she grew, she found out his thing was an anomaly in his brain that ensured he hit every target he aimed for, no matter how distant the shot. Bow and arrow still seemed ridiculous.

With Penny, though, it made more sense.

Penny was from the era where manual weapons were the norm. She had grown up in an era where if you used a weapon, it was going to be a manual one. In fact, it was actually rational, to Morgan’s mind, that she would have a preference for things like swords and maces, and bows and arrows.

They would be more comfortable for her.  
‘So...you said you guesstimated your birth based on wars...?’ Morgan asked.

Penny smiled. ‘I come from a family of yeomen. I was the only daughter and my mother died giving birth to me.’

Morgan winced. She knew that sort of thing happened frequently in those days. Still, it brought back the few memories she still had of her father. It had actually taken quite a while for Morgan to realise the memory she had of sitting on someone’s knee, their larger hand gently guiding her much smaller one on a power-tool so she didn’t injure herself and a specially-made welding mask over her face, was actually her clearest memory of her father.

Morgan cracked a grin. ‘So, I guess you’d know what wars were going on then.’

Penny chuckled.

‘What about that thing you did to Magneto?’ Morgan asked.

Penny smiled. ‘You’re wondering how I did it? Simple enough, really. Some people have a way of speaking that is so charismatic and so poignant that it can’t be blocked out. When people have that ability, you want one of two things. Either, they grow up around highly intelligent and rational people, or they grow up around other people who do the same thing – preferably the former.’

‘Why preferably the former?’ Morgan asked.

With a sigh, Penny set a dagger down. ‘Because not all people are going to notice you’re doing it and you’re not necessarily going to notice them doing it. It’s only when you pay attention over a period of time that it’ll come to your notice. In my case, it was my father who noticed my brothers and I getting people to agree with us whenever we were passionate about something. And he made sure we knew that it didn’t mean we were right. We just _sounded_ like we were. My brothers said that Gamma used to call it “the Voice”.’

‘Gamma?’ Morgan asked.

‘That’s what we called my grandmother.’ Penny gave a wry smile. ‘I don’t really remember her. She died when I was still pretty young. My oldest brother was significantly older than me.’

Morgan chuckled. ‘So you grew up like a man in the Dark Ages, and you learned to use your voice to your advantage?’

‘Pretty much.’

‘That sounds incredibly...’Something suddenly occurred to Morgan. ‘...dangerous...’

Penny gave her a severe look. ‘It is. Now, I knew I had it most of my life. And I was raised in an era where commoners who wagged their tongues lost their tongues – if they were lucky. This kind of charisma was a lot harder to spot back then. Now, though, and here where and when the average joe on the street is entitled to have an opinion, it’s a lot more visible.’

‘Cap had it, didn’t he?’ Morgan asked flatly.

‘Clearly,’ Penny said. ‘And also clearly, he had no idea.’

Morgan frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

‘People who do have the ability to alter other peoples’ opinions just by talking benefit from knowing it’s their voice that’s convincing people and not their arguments.’

‘Or their inherent sense of rightness?’ Morgan asked with a hint of irritation.

‘Right!’ Penny pointed at her and clicked. ‘Because once that idea enters their heads, they go down a slippery slope it’s hard to come back from. And the longer they’re on that slope, the harder it is to climb back up and see how things are. And the best bit?’

Morgan already knew this one. ‘They take other people with them.’

The two women were silent for a moment.

‘It’s probably a day late and a dollar short,’ Penny finally said. ‘But that’s pretty easy to combat.’

‘Oh, yeah?’ Morgan asked. ‘How?’

‘By picking apart their arguments. Force their audience to take note of _what_ they’re saying rather than _how_ they’re saying it. It’s why I make sure my arguments make sense.’

 

**Avengers HQ**  
‘...and they’re just trying to undermine the Avengers! I mean, how stupid of a name is “the Crusaders”?’

Carol Danvers walked into the meeting room to hear that one. She was tempted to turn on her heel and leave the room again, but she was a professional.

Fortunately, Barnes responded to that one. ‘The technical definition of a crusade is a battle for social, political, or religious change. Given what they’re trying to do, it’s actually a sensible name.’

Carol was glad for it, even if she wasn’t completely sold on Wakanda’s cure of him. When she’d had a chance, she sat down and looked over his Winter Soldier file. Given what had happened to him; what he’d been forced to do, she was concerned about the lack of traumatic response that’d been observed in him.

It was no wonder the court of public opinion turned towards the alternative and called the Wakandan device “unnatural”.

‘I wouldn’t say they’re trying to undermine us,’ Wilson said. ‘More like compete with us. I mean, I know that Morgan holds us responsible for Tony’s death, but still...’

Carol decided to end the conversation right there. ‘This meeting is not to discuss anyone’s problems with the Crusaders. We’re here for a debrief about the last mission.’

And, looking at this team – most of whom were getting on in age – she could see why they were so annoyed at the Crusaders. The last one to join the Avengers (who was not the child of a previous Avenger) was Spider-Man and he’d walked out only a few months later. Now he joined Morgan’s team after she’d turned Sam away. It was likely he wouldn’t walk away from her as he had them.

But the Crusaders weren’t there to generally fight for the Earth like the Avengers were.

They had a completely different mission statement.

They wanted to change the way the world looked at people who were _born_ with powers.

So...Carol would have no more of this discussion.

Not on her time.

***

Cassie Lang typed away at her computer, making a few modifications on the Wasp suit.

In the background, there was a documentary running on the original Avengers line-up – or what the public thought was the original line-up. Cassie didn’t know why those two watched it. The information in it they already knew, and they’d seen enough of those documentaries to know everything the public just got wrong.

‘I’m not even in this!’ Wanda complained.

‘I think it’s the 2012 line-up,’ Sam said. ‘It’s no big deal.’

‘When did I come in?’ Wanda asked.

‘About a year after I did.’

‘When was that?’

‘2015.’

Cassie ignored her, but made a note to report to Carol about that conversation.

Whatever had been done to give her those powers had definitely caught up to her.

‘I think it’s great Steve got his happy ending,’ Wanda said randomly. ‘He should have been able to grow old with his wife.’

Cassie looked over her shoulder to see what had prompted that remark. She had her own opinions on that particular series of events. But it looked to be another of those remarks prompted by Wanda’s wandering mind. Cassie frowned as she glared at her computer screen. How was it great?

How was it fair for Steve Rogers to use Tony Stark’s time travel device to just take what he wanted on a whim while a little girl was left fatherless?

It wasn’t.

And part of Cassie wondered what in the hell her father was thinking back then.

Well, it was too late now.

_And I’m glad Morgan turned him down. I don’t think this team would be any better for her than it was for her father._


	10. Understanding Motives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of introspection takes place.

Pepper Stark looked up as the door slid open.

‘Your suit looks like your father’s old one,’ she mused.

‘Not exactly, I hope,’ Morgan said, letting lines of electricity crackle over her fingers as she walked into the room.

‘Well, that would be difficult,’ her mother said. ‘He was always changing them up and improving them.’

‘Naturally.’ Morgan smiled and walked over. ‘How are you doing, mom?’

Pepper smiled. ‘I should be asking you that. You’re the one running around quelling anti-mutant attacks. Not to mention all that business to give all those people some form of legal protection.’

‘I’m only doing what needs to be done.’

‘And yet, it’s always the Starks doing that.’ Pepper sighed. ‘So, who was the blonde? She looked pretty handy with manual weapons.’

‘That was Penny.’

Pepper’s eyes lit up. ‘Oh, yes. That’s the woman you told me about. The immortal?’

‘Yeah.’ Morgan sat next to her. ‘You really liked her explanation, didn’t you?’

‘Well, it did give sense to the utter stupidity your father had to deal with before you were born,’ her mother said. ‘Did you...find out why she took so long to come out into the open if she was there the whole time?’

‘She did explain that to me, yeah,’ Morgan said. ‘Penny’s not in the habit of exposing her kind to the mortal world.’

‘Her kind?’

‘Apparently, becoming immortal happens every now and again. There’s currently about 250 running across the surface of the planet. And they’re not only incapable of death, but their brains change shape so they can retain all their memories no matter how long they live. You can imagine how that would change the way they think.’

‘Yes, I can.’

‘Right.’ Morgan nodded. ‘So, they formed into a sort of unseen society because...well, you’ve seen how people respond when someone claims to have the secret to immortality. Imagine what they’d do if they found out that someone had the real thing. And immortals are just that: immortal. They don’t have any other powers that would save them if someone captured them in order to try and replicate their immortality.’

Pepper nodded. ‘So they’re careful about who they share their state with.’

Morgan nodded. ‘It turns out there was always intention to approach _a_ Stark, but there was never a good time. Or, if there was, it slipped past them before they could manage to fabricate a good introduction.’

Pepper gave her daughter a wry smile. ‘They wanted to make a good impression when they approached you.’

‘Pretty much.’ Morgan chuckled. ‘Grandpa...well, after the blood incident, it was too late. Dad had a very small window of opportunity that they completely missed. My coming onto national TV like I did was what told them they could approach me.’

Pepper nodded but her face was severe. ‘What blood incident?’

‘Oh. My. God!’ Flicking her fingers, sparks flew from the tips of her digits and dispersed into the air. ‘So, 1946. Grandpa’s house gets broken into, a mass of weapons too dangerous for production gets stolen. They don’t believe him so he has to go on the run. Before he leaves, though, he calls on Peggy Carter to clear his name. Meanwhile, he’s got this...bomb.’

‘Wasn’t a real bomb?’ her mother guessed.

‘No. It contained a vial of Steve Rogers’ blood. Grandpa was hoping to use it for medicinal purposes. But when Carter found out, she took issue to it and ended up tipping it into a river somewhere.’

Pepper closed her eyes at that. ‘Oh. My. God.’

‘See?’ Morgan waved her hand. ‘I don’t know how accurate it was, but I’d agree with Penny. That was grandpa’s closure to the whole affair and Carter just took it away from him anyway. And then that was moot in point.’

‘Tell me about it,’ her mother grumbled. ‘And how did Penny find out about this?’

‘She spent a hell of a lot of time outside of the law,’ Morgan said. ‘Over her lifetime, she’s gotten very good at getting any information she goes after – no matter how good the person is at keeping the information down.’

‘You’ve known her for two weeks,’ Pepper pointed out.

‘I’m just repeating what I’ve heard Hercules bragging about.’ Morgan lifted her hands with a grin. ‘What Penny herself said was that after that blood was gone, his closure was gone and he was stuck in that headset. She’s very firmly of the opinion that if grandpa had been able to do with that blood what he intended, dad would never have been overshadowed by a propaganda piece.’

‘She said that?’

Morgan seemed to consider. ‘No. It’d be more accurate to say she just strongly implied it.’

Pepper chuckled.

 

**Westchester**  
‘Heya, furball,’ Logan greeted Hank as he walked down into the study.

The blue-furred mutant gave a wry smile, having known Logan far too long to be offended any more.

‘Hank just got back from his meeting with Morgan Stark,’ Storm told him.

‘Yeah?’ Logan asked. ‘How’d that go?’

‘Lovely girl,’ Hank said. ‘Very polite and courteous. She’s willing to hear our proposals. I must say, I was relieved to find that Magneto’s attack upon her did nothing to impede her decision to help the mutant community.

Logan shrugged. ‘Odds are, she was expecting it.’

‘That was the impression I got,’ Charles said.

Logan cocked an eyebrow at him. ‘You didn’t delve into her mind without telling her, did you, Chuck?’ See, it was shit like this that would stop people like her wanting to help them.  
Sure, Logan knew Xavier meant well, but he was blind to his own double-standards.

Xavier frowned. ‘Even if I had, it would hardly do me any good. Her mind is extremely cloudy – just as cloudy as yours is. I expect it’s due to the fact that both of her parents were exposed to the Extremis Virus prior to her birth.’

Which meant he’d tried, but he had trouble reading her mind.

Hank sighed and closed his eyes a moment, before dropping it. ‘Speaking of Miss Stark, Logan. I looked her up, and you were right. It isn’t that surprising that she was the one to step in.’

Storm looked surprised. ‘Why? Because her father was the one who started the idea of folding super-powered individuals into legal doctrine?’

Logan shook his head. ‘That part wasn’t Stark. He just started pushing all the shit into a better direction for us, before the Walking Flag had his bitch fit.’

Hank chuckled. ‘That wasn’t exactly what I meant. I found several of her early scientific papers. She was coordinating with other, more experienced scientists, of course. I believe her earliest one was published when she was about fifteen. Quite a number of them make the suggestion, and then back it up with some very solid evidence, that our mutations are simply the next step on the ladder of evolution. She was also quite involved in many peaceful protests for mutant rights since she was about fourteen.’

Xavier nodded with a smile. ‘So, what she’s doing now is not as far out of left field as Scott and Jean believed it to be.’

‘Nope,’ Logan said. ‘And I can say for a fact that John can calm down. Those shelters are real too.’

‘You’ve used them?’ Storm asked.

‘Quite a few times before I came here,’ Logan said. ‘There’s nothing wrong with the food or the clothes they give you.’

‘What about the shelter?’ Hank asked. ‘Is that as secure as we’ve been led to believe?’

‘Yup.’ Logan smirked. ‘More than once I saw ‘em turn away anti-mutant bigots. They come down pretty hard on ‘em if they try anything. It was funny as hell to watch.’

Storm grinned. ‘Yeah, I did research onto them when they first opened up. There’s a very sophisticated scan on the door. And the volunteers are vetted very carefully to make sure no anti-mutant bigots get into any position of care over the mutants in the shelter.’

And, yes, he’d seen that too.

It brought Logan to the conclusion that Morgan Stark actually personally knew someone who was a mutant – may have even died from mutant prosecution.

It would put a hell of a lot of sense on what she was doing now.

 

**Elsewhere**  
‘It’s getting worse.’

‘How the hell does she have this much sway?!’

‘I told you: she’s a Stark. Stark’s could convince the sky is pink with purple polka dots if they put their minds to it.’

‘I guess we’ll have to deal with it.’

‘What are we gonna do if people ask questions?’

‘Just tell them she was killed by a mutant. It’s not like it’s a lie.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you like my cliffhanger? I'm not even sorry.


	11. Weapon X-23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An uninvited guest shows up at the Crusader's HQ.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stepping into comics territory here.

Morgan stepped into Crusaders HQ and paused at the door.

She could still hear the crowd outside and took the chance, not that she was out of the public eye, to pull off her shades and wipe away the spray from her cheek. Lifting her glasses, she looked at it and frowned. Something about the liquid that’d shot out of the crowd was bugging her. She walked over to the nearest monitor.

‘FRIDAY?’

‘Yes, Boss Jr.?’

‘There’s some liquid on my shades.’ She opened a panel in the wall and dropped them in. ‘Can you scan and see what it is?’

‘Sure.’ After a moment, FRIDAY spoke again with confusion in her voice. ‘That’s weird. It’s a chemical compound that appears manmade.’

Morgan lifted the hand she’d used to rub away the liquid and sniffed. ‘Odourless...’

‘Not quite. It does emit a scent, but not one a human could detect. It’s more something that could be detected by something with an acute sense of smell, like a dog.’

‘And why would someone spray that on me?’ Morgan asked.

‘What am I? Psychic?’

Morgan scoffed. ‘I wish!’

***

Peter swung down and landed on the roof of the Tower and grinned as he headed down into the building.

‘Well, Peter,’ FRIDAY said. ‘The rest of the Crusaders, with the exception of Dr. Strange, are in the conference room.’

‘Thank you, FRIDAY. Anything interesting happen?’

‘Not as of yet,’ FRIDAY said. ‘We’ve found a new chemical compound, which I am in the process of examining. Boss Jr. has a new draft of the Accords for us to look over, and anti-mutant attacks are down a further 2%. Boss Jr. would like it to be lowered even further.’

‘I think we all would,’ Peter said. ‘Okay.’ He walked into the elevator and shovelled his hands into his pockets. ‘Well, at least she’s had a more eventful week than I have.’

‘A bit quiet, huh?’ FRIDAY asked.

‘The Queens criminals are being unusually quiet.’ Peter frowned. ‘Generally, I’d be glad for it, but my spider-sense is still going haywire.’

‘Shall I report it to Boss Jr.?’ FRIDAY asked, concerned.

Peter shook his head. ‘No. It’s my problem. No need to put more on her plate than there needs to be.’

‘If you say so.’

The elevator stopped and Peter stepped out. He walked down the corridor and into the room with the word “Crusaders” written across it, with the “c” enlarged and looking like it was holding the rest of the word. As FRIDAY had said, most of the rest of the team were gathered around the table with Morgan at the head.

‘Just waiting on Strange, then?’ Peter asked.

Morgan glanced up at the headpiece she was wearing, which clipped to her ear so the screen could hover just over her eyebrow. ‘Should be here at any second.’

Penny smirked. ‘Three...two...one.’

A golden portal opened up and the Sorcerer Supreme stepped through.

Hercules turned and looked at the woman next to him. ‘How do you do that?’

‘Lots of practice,’ Penny said blandly.

Strange made a humming sound in his throat as he sat down. ‘If you’re quite through.’ Even though he acted annoyed, Peter got the feeling that Strange actually liked Penny. She was honest and self-aware enough to know when she was actually right and when she was just doing that Voice thing.

Morgan grinned. ‘Okay, as everyone but Strange has already been informed, we have a new draft of the Accords to go over.’ She hit a button and in front of each of them a panel opened up in the table and lifted up in front of them. ‘Read and mark, blah, blah, blah, you know the drill.’

They opened the books.

‘Oh, and Penny?’

Penny lifted her hands. ‘Hey, I was born into the peasantry. I did not learn to read or write until the 1700s. I’m occasionally going to spell things the old way. They’ll just have to put up with it.’

Peter wasn’t the only one who snorted in amusement.

Hercules smiled. ‘Do they have a problem with my Greek?’

‘No. By sheer good luck, the guy reading your Greek comments is a career language expert who specialises in ancient Greek dialects. He actually asks for yours.’

So they spent the next few hours going over the new version of the Accords. When they finished, they quickly migrated up to the living room – one of the many Morgan had – and sat down to watch TV. It was nothing out of the ordinary, but Peter’s spider-sense just kept on tingling.

Then it suddenly started screeching at him.

Peter launched forward and grabbed his head, causing all the others to twist around and look at him.

‘Boss Jr.,’ FRIDAY said before anyone could say or ask anything. ‘There appears to be an intruder in the tower. She has already shaken off all the defences.’

‘Everything?’ Morgan demanded.

‘Everything. Even the knock-out gas and the taser hits.’

‘Could be another mutant or human mutate.’ Penny stood up. ‘Is she hostile?’

‘She has a set of retractable claws and is using them to slash open doors and all other barriers in her way,’ FRIDAY said. ‘And she is heading upwards – directly for this room.’

‘FRIDAY, scan her!’ Morgan ordered.

‘I’ve just finished,’ FRIDAY said. ‘She does have an active mutant gene – the same one observed in the mutant Wolverine. Its biological structure is exactly identical. I have also noted that she appears to be only 15 years old, judging from her development and physical appearance.’

‘15?’ Peter breathed. ‘That’s the same age I was when I got my powers.’

‘Exactly identical...’ Morgan frowned. ‘That isn’t right. Even if Wolverine had a daughter, his daughter’s mutation wouldn’t come out exactly identical...’ She froze. ‘...unless it was specifically engineered to do so.’

There was a silence.

Penny was the first to move. ‘Well, she’s coming up here anyway. Herc, Peter, on the door. If she is a replica of Wolverine, I expect she’s got the nose of a bloodhound. Be careful of her claws. They’ll cut through you like a hot knife through butter.’ She grabbed a throwing knife. ‘When she comes in, I’ll distract her. One or both of you grab her.’

The five Crusaders moved. Strange drew against the back of the room. Hercules moved to the edge of the door while Peter leapt up and attached himself to the ceiling. Penny moved up to a better vantage point, FRIDAY putting out the newly installed wall panels and then retracting them as required. Morgan stood in the centre of the room and folded her arms.

‘FRIDAY,’ she said. ‘Take facial identification and I don’t care who you have to hack. Just identify her.’

‘Yes, Boss Jr.’

So they waited for a few tense minutes. Then with a bone-shuddering noise that defied description – Thank God it was over quickly – the door to the living room was torn apart. A fifteen year old Latina girl stepped through. Peter quickly noticed that she didn’t look very much like the Wolverine he’d met from time to time when the QPD had worked with the X-Men.

Penny’s reflexes were lightning fast and the throwing knife buried itself in the girl’s eye. She snarled and ripped it out. That was when Peter saw that while she didn’t look like Wolverine, she sure as hell healed like him. The eye regenerated and the flesh knit back together. There was only a little blood left at the end.

Hercules took the opportunity and moved fast. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and locked his wrists, pinning her arms down and trapping her against his chest. The throwing knife dropped to the ground. She snarled again and began to struggle, kicking and pulling, but Hercules held fast.

Peter clipped on his web-shooters and quickly webbed the girl up, fastening her arms and legs so she couldn’t lash out with those claws. Unlike Wolverine, she only had two claws coming out of her fists and the third set seemed to be located in her feet. She began to growl as both Peter and Penny hopped down.

Penny inclined her head and crept forward.

‘What’s wrong?’ Morgan asked.

‘Her eyes,’ Penny said. ‘They don’t look quite right.’

Peter looked over and Hercules craned his head. He wouldn’t be able to see but Peter could. He hadn’t noticed it before, but Penny was right. She had brown eyes that seemed to almost vibrate in their sockets. Now, Peter had encountered some people whose eyes shook, and he knew it was a medical condition – but he didn’t think this was the case here.

He’d seen people with this condition. What was it called again? Peter lifted his wrist and tapped for the search-bar on his phone. After a moment, he had his answer. _Oh, yeah. Nystagmus._ Still, this was not the same thing. Her pupils were actually as small as was physically possible, like she was asleep.

Strange then pushed himself off of the wall and walked right over. He pressed his thumb to the centre of the girl’s forehead. There was a light golden circle that momentarily appeared and then he stepped back. ‘She’s not conscious.’

FRIDAY spoke up again. ‘If I may.’

Morgan looked up. ‘Go on, FRIDAY.’

‘I’ve found the data you were looking for, Boss Jr. Evidently, this girl was made from DNA taken from the Wolverine without his knowledge and without his consent. She is only identified as Subject X-23. It seems they’ve conditioned her to respond to a specific chemical.’

‘Let me guess.’ Morgan rubbed the bridge of her nose. ‘The one that was sprayed on me?’

‘The very same. It seems once she smells this chemical, she blacks out and mindlessly kills everyone who gets in her way. It’s very much akin to what happened to James Barnes, just with smell instead of words.’

‘Okay.’ Morgan sighed. ‘Have medical break out the MPC.’ She looked around. ‘You guys keep her down until the effects wear off. Oh, and move outta my way.’

‘Shower and change?’ Penny asked.

‘Decontamination chamber and change, actually,’ Morgan said. ‘I don’t think hot water and soap are gonna get this shit off me.’

Peter winced as Hercules manoeuvred as much as the webbing would let him and Morgan strode around and out the ruined door. He made his opinion known.

‘I hate the decontamination chamber.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While they were aiming primarily for Morgan, Transigen was fine with getting all the Crusaders.
> 
> I'm explaining this because they're hardly going to step forward and explain themselves. And once Logan finds out they'll hardly have a _chance_ to explain themselves.


	12. The Alternate Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some very...disturbing facts come to light.

Morgan walked back down, but to the medical floor, her skin still tingling from the decontamination process. When she walked into the med bay, she saw Strange closest to the door, conferring with one of her medical staff. Hercules, Penny, and Peter, though, were all standing with the girl.

Her eyes were no longer shaking and her pupils were back to normal size. She sat there, knees hugged to her chest as she looked around. Honestly, she looked like the scared little girl she really was. Taking a deep breath, Morgan walked over. The girl looked up at her with wide eyes and flinched.

‘Easy,’ Morgan said. ‘Do you have a name?’

The girl swallowed. ‘You’re this casual with someone who just tried to kill you?’

‘Well, it’s not like you had a choice in the matter,’ Morgan said, ‘and you didn’t actually kill me. Now, my grandparents were actually killed by an assassin conditioned like you were.’

The girl looked surprised. ‘There was someone like me?’

‘Yes, there was.’ Morgan clicked. ‘Now, I’ve got access to the Transigen mainframe. There’s just a few things I’d like to know. Are you all right answering a few questions?’

The girl nodded.

‘All right.’ Morgan scrolled through. ‘Now your designation is X-23. You’re an extension of the Weapons Plus Program. What do you know about the project itself?’

‘Not a lot,’ the girl said. ‘They told me I was a clone of Wolverine.’

‘You’re not a clone,’ Peter told her and she twisted around. ‘Clones are exact replicas of the original organism. Wolverine is a short, stocky, Caucasian man. You are still short, but you’re not stocky, you’re a Latina, and you’re a girl. You’re not a clone.’

‘Do you remember any parents?’ Penny asked. ‘A mother, maybe?’

The girl looked thoughtful. ‘I think...yeah, I think I had a mother. She...disappeared, though.’

Morgan frowned. She remembered when her father disappeared. And the reason for it was likely to be the same. ‘Somehow, I doubt that was her choice. Did she call you X-23 too?’

‘No. She called me Laura.’

Morgan nodded. ‘That must be what she named you.’ They’d likely only kept the woman around to deal with things like feeding Laura, potty-training her, washing her, and the like. Once she could do these things herself, it was likely that her mother had been “dealt with” so there wasn’t anyone there to treat her like a child rather than a weapon. ‘Do you know where all this took place, Laura?’

Laura looked startled, but answered. ‘Mom said the city was called Tuscon.’

Right near the border.

Peter was apparently thinking the same thing. ‘Your mom was probably an illegal immigrant.’

‘A what?’ Laura asked him.

Penny explained. ‘Sometimes, people have to leave the country they were born in for one reason or another. There is an entire beaurocratic process they need to go through to legally enter another country in order to take refuge there. However, this process is long and arduous, and you can get turned down at any time. Of course, there are good reasons it is this way, but as a direct result, some people just cross the border – especially if they can get there on foot – without going through it. We call these people illegal immigrants.’

‘And you think my mom was one of them?’ Laura asked.

Morgan shrugged. ‘Illegal immigrants are particularly vulnerable. Because they’re not supposed to be in the country, they can’t access any legal protections without getting booted back to wherever they came from – and, sometimes, even often, the police may not even bother to follow up on the crime reported.’

‘Hang on,’ one of the medical personnel said, stepping over. ‘If you had a mother, then Transigen would have had to procure an x-chromosome from Wolverine in order to conceive you.’

Laura looked at him. ‘Huh?’

Strange pulled a face. Morgan, Penny, and Peter looked at each other as they realised what that meant.

‘Ew!’ they all exclaimed.

Hercules looked thoughtful for a moment before his eyes bugged, and then he cringed. ‘That’s disgusting.’

‘Huh?’ Laura asked.

They all looked over at her.

‘Um...’ Morgan hesitated. ‘Did...anyone bother to explain to you where babies come from?’

Laura shook her head.

Strange huffed. ‘All right. Are there any volunteers to give her The Talk, or must I do it?’

‘I’ll do it,’ Penny said.

‘In the meantime, Miss Stark,’ the doctor said to her, ‘perhaps you’d better contact this Wolverine?’

‘Right.’ Morgan nodded and headed out of the med bay. The others, barring Penny, followed her.

‘Why is that?’ Hercules asked.

‘She’s a minor,’ Strange said. ‘Legally, we can’t perform any medical procedures on her, short of her being on death’s door, without consent from a parental figure. As her mother is dead, that leaves only her father. We need to inform him of our discovery and _then_ get his consent to remove the triggers.’

Hercules nodded. ‘This makes sense. Since my era, you have raised the age of maturity up to eighteen, have you not?’

‘Yeah.’ Morgan lifted her head. ‘The most obvious way to contact Wolverine, though, is through Professor X. FRIDAY, does he have a cell phone of his own.’

‘He does, Boss Jr. Would you like me to procure the number for you?’

‘Please.’

A hologram appeared in the wall and after a moment, the numbers flashed up one by one. Then the word “dialling” appeared over them.

The phone rang for a moment before it was answered. ‘Yeah?’

‘Wolverine, this is the Crusaders,’ Morgan said.

‘Right,’ he said. ‘What d’you want?’

‘Your presence, actually,’ Morgan said. ‘Is it true that you spent a number of years incarcerated in experimentation by the US government?’

‘Yeah. Don’t remember much of it, though.’

‘Yes, we’ve found something of what was done to you. I think you’re gonna want to see it for yourself.’

There was a silence on the other end of the line. ‘All right.’ He hung up.

‘Now what?’ Peter asked.

‘Now, we wait for him.’ Morgan lifted her eyes. ‘FRIDAY, if Penny doesn’t figure on it and tell her, let them know that Wolverine is coming. Oh, and send some of my trackers out. Attach them to every person in Transigen responsible for this BS.’

Electricity crackled around Morgan’s clenched fist.

***

A panel opened at the base of the Crusader’s HQ.

A series of tiny bots, shaped like everyday flying bugs, flew out and into the air.

The crossed the air and headed south.

They passed over Logan, gunning the engine of his motorbike to the building they’d come from.

He glanced up at them with a raised eyebrow.

***

‘Okay, do you understand?’ Penny asked.

‘Yeah, I think so,’ Laura looked a little overwhelmed. ‘People actually do that?’

‘Yes. Everybody does, except eunuchs.’ Penny sighed.

Laura shook her head. ‘Weird. So...if my parents never met, how was I conceived?’

‘A procedure that we call an IUI.’ Penny flicked her hair over her shoulder. ‘Basically, they take the seed from the man and put it into the woman. Usually, this is done with consent, but it wasn’t in this case.’

‘And that’s bad?’

‘Putting it mildly.’ Penny nodded her head. ‘You saw our reactions? Well, that’s the normal response to such a violation.’ She frowned. ‘Of course, your life seems to have been one violation after another. I’ll tell you, because I doubt they’d have ever wanted you to know, but everything those people have ever done to you – all of it is wrong.’

Laura looked thoughtful. ‘So...what now?’

‘Now, we start doing things properly. Your brain doesn’t finish developing until you are twenty-five, and you are not considered a legal adult until you are eighteen.’

‘I’m fifteen,’ Laura said.

‘Which means we have a legal obligation to alert your surviving parent to the fact that you are here.’

***

Logan stepped into the tower and looked around.

‘Welcome to Crusaders, HQ, Wolverine,’ Stark’s AI said. ‘Please proceed to the lift and Boss Jr. will meet you there.’

Pulling out a cigar and wedging it between his teeth, Logan strode through the foyer and over to the lift. It opened and began to move on its own. Lighting his cigar, Logan wondered what Stark could have found to actually call him directly. Usually, they’d contact Chuck when they needed something from even one of the X-Men.

The lift stopped and the door opened. Stark was waiting for him by herself.

‘Thanks for coming, Logan,’ she said.

Logan stepped out and cocked his eyebrow.

‘Right.’ And he could immediately see how she dominated a primarily-male industry. ‘We’ll skip the gristle and get straight down to the bone. Are you familiar with the Weapons Plus Program?’

‘I was Weapon X,’ he said. ‘That’s all I know.’

Stark nodded. ‘You were a small part of it. They spent some time experimenting on weaponising various mutants. You were given the designation X because you were their tenth attempt.’

So it was a Roman numeral.

Stark went on. ‘They tried countless mutants but you were the most...successful and useful, I suppose. When they lost you, they decided...not to be...discouraged by that.’ She looked like she was smelling something nasty. ‘And...they still had...samples of your DNA.’

‘Meaning?’ Logan asked.

Stark clicked and a profile appeared behind her.

The cigar fell from between Logan’s teeth. ‘...What the fuck?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, the in-comics explanation for Laura being a girl was that they ran out of Logan's y-chromosomes.
> 
> Make of that what you will.


	13. The MPC

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan and Laura meet for the first time.

‘Do you need anything?’ Morgan asked as she watched Logan’s eyes dart over the data on Laura again and again.

‘A beer would be good.’

One of FRIDAY’s panels opened and Morgan went over. Picking up the beer, she tossed it over to him. Logan caught it, ripped off the top and then practically inhaled it. Morgan stood back, watching. _Good thing he can’t get drunk._ She waited until he finished the bottle, and then he walked over to the nearest countertop and leaned heavily against it.

‘How did you find out?’

‘Because the dickheads in charge sent her to try and kill me.’

Logan turned and looked at her, eyebrow raised.

Morgan winced. ‘Evidently, they’ve subjected her to the same sort of conditioning the Winter Soldier was given – just with scent instead of sound.’

A very scary-looking scowl came over Logan’s face and Morgan glanced down to see movement under the skin of the backs of his hands. Morgan vaguely remembered that the wolverines in the wild were very involved fathers. She kind of hoped this one turned out to be the same. With a sigh, Morgan ran a hand through her hair.

‘I have a device which will remove the triggers they conditioned into her.’

Logan cocked his head. ‘Yeah, I heard of it. And your machine ain’t so stupid that you’ll have it remove the shit-show she lived from her mind along with the triggers?’

‘Just the triggers,’ Morgan promised. ‘I built this machine because I understand that the brain doesn’t work that way.’

‘Really?’ Logan asked. ‘I thought it was because Wakanda wouldn’t let any outsiders that weren’t Barnes near their one.’

‘Nah,’ Morgan drawled flippantly. ‘It was mostly to deflate their heads.’

Logan just smirked.

***

Logan followed Stark up into the medical wing. Even if his head was still reeling, he needed to see the girl for himself. When they came up and were walking down the corridor. There was already a small group there. The blonde woman with the British accent was scratching the back of her neck.

‘I just told her the basics,’ she was saying. ‘I figure she can learn the rest of it later.’

That Dr. Strange guy snorted in response – and Logan was pretty sure that was the Wall Crawler grinning like he was holding back some smart comment.

The blonde looked over first, though. ‘I can only assume you’re Logan.’

Logan gave her a bitter smirk.

Stark sighed. ‘Well, formalities are annoying but this is Penny Hood, immortalised younger sister of the guy who we now call Robin Hood.’

Logan cocked an eyebrow. That would explain her scent. Normally, he could guess someone’s age by their scent. This one, however, lacked the overpowering stench of hormones that her apparent age group all carried. In the late teens, the hormones were only just starting to settle, but she smelt like hers had settled long ago.

Stark nodded her head. ‘I believe you’ve met the Sorcerer Supreme and Mr. Parker, here.’

Logan nodded. ‘I’ve seen them around.’

Stark lifted her head and nodded as a large man with a particularly bulky frame was walking down the corridor. ‘And I don’t doubt you’ve heard of Hercules.’

Logan snorted in amusement at that. One would have to be living under a rock since birth not to have heard of _him_.

‘Okay.’ Penny clapped her hands together. ‘So, formalities are out of the way.’ She pointed to the door they were all standing outside of. ‘What say we get this show on the road? Kid’s probably on the verge of biting her nails off.’

Logan pulled a face but moved to the door first. He felt Stark fall into step behind him but no one else followed. When they stepped into the room, Logan’s eyes were immediately drawn to the girl on the bed. He vaguely noticed Stark moving off to speak with the doctor, but the girl held all of his attention.

She was a tiny little thing; smaller than he’d been at fifteen. The colour of her skin led him to believe her mother had been from below the Mexican border. He made a mental note to ask Stark later on. He slowly moved into the room. The girl sat cross-legged on the bed. She looked up at him with a guarded expression.

‘You know who I am?’ Logan asked.

Laura nodded. ‘You’re my father.’

Logan nodded, still unsure how he felt about it.

The doc stepped over. ‘Mr. Howlett.’

Logan looked over at him, raising an eyebrow.

‘As Miss Stark’s already explained, we do have a machine that can deal with the triggers. However, as Laura is a minor, we do require your consent before using it on her.’

That was a new one. Generally, people didn’t give a flying fuck about a mutant’s consent. The way in which Laura had been born and raised until this point – and Logan’s lack of knowledge of her – was a testament to that. Of course, Stark was the biggest champion for Mutant Rights in the world at present. It made sense that she would enforce her pro-mutant views in her own employees.

Logan looked at Laura. It wouldn’t do if she wasn’t prepared to go in the thing. ‘You feel up to being put in that thing?’

Laura looked as surprised at being asked for her feelings on the matter as Logan had been at being asked for consent. It made him angry. But she licked her lips and nodded. ‘Whenever I smell that stuff, I black out. When I wake up, everyone’s dead. I don’t care what has to happen, as long as it stops.’

Logan nodded and turned back to the doc and Stark. ‘Does it work?’

‘I’ve repetitively crunched the numbers,’ Stark said. ‘Unfortunately, what happened to her and Barnes happens so infrequently that I’ve had no suitable volunteers to test it. But, let’s be honest: I built it, so the odds are that it’s gonna work.’

If nothing else proved her name and heritage, that did. Of course, it wasn’t undeserved. ‘Go ahead.’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘But I wanna be sure you don’t try any funny business.’

He ignored the conflicted (and hopeful) look that Laura gave him in response to that.

The doc looked alarmed, but nodded.

Stark, on the other hand, looked like she’d expected nothing less.

***

Laura found herself clinging to Logan’s hand as soon as he’d reached out and taken hers. If he noticed, he didn’t say or do anything in response. He merely led her after the doctor and her intended target. Laura hadn’t the faintest idea what they’d wanted this woman dead but, after everything Morgan Stark was doing for her, Laura swore she’d fight to the death to defend her.

They walked into a large and sterile room, the door opening automatically for them. Dr. Strange already waited for them. Inside there was a large white machine, surrounded by several computer monitors. A table poked out from inside the machine. It looked like the sort of thing she’d laid down on when Dr. Rice called her into his lab. The thought made her flinch into Logan’s side.

His thumb brushed over her knuckles. Morgan noticed too. She looked back. ‘Are you sure about this, Laura?’

Laura hesitated. ‘Will it hurt?’

The doctor turned from the computers. ‘Miss Stark poured a lot of effort into making MPC as painless as possible.’

‘MPC?’ Laura asked.

Strange nodded. ‘Mental Programming Clearer.’ He cringed. ‘Working title.’

‘How’s it work?’ Logan asked.

‘Simple enough,’ Strange said. ‘The triggers are the brain’s response to this particular kind of trauma when the victim is helpless to escape the situation; a chemical reaction. The brain actually produces the chemicals to create this response. This machine sends a surge over the entire body which purges the chemical.’

The other doctor went on. ‘It’s essentially telling the brain “you can’t deal with it like this anymore”.’

‘In theory,’ Morgan said, ‘the result is that the chemical is expelled from the brain. It’ll primarily come out of the eyes and nose.’

‘That’s all?’ Laura asked.

‘That’s all.’

Laura clutched her father’s hand for a moment more before she let go and let the two doctors help her up onto the machine. They spoke to her in gentle tones she’d never heard before as they guided her into the machine. Morgan then moved over and pulled a device down over her head. She explained it.

‘This is the thing the surge goes through.’

Laura nodded and let her strap it on. She glanced at her father as they hit a few switches and the table moved into the machine. He was standing close enough to her for her to be sufficiently comfortable. She was launched into semi-darkness. She took a deep breath to calm herself, and then the machine began to hum.

A strange buzzing passed over her entire body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was really hard to write and I'm still not entirely happy with it.
> 
> At the same time, I don't think either Logan or Laura are overly emotional people.

**Author's Note:**

> Due to the fact that I've gotten trolls who apparently don't care about whether I moderate my stories or not, and still comment with the clear intention to annoy the writer, I found myself having to decide whether to continue just deleting their comments or disable anonymous commenting.
> 
> As I have better things to do that deal with comments from people that have nothing better to do than look for people to troll, I have disabled anonymous commenting on all of my stories.
> 
> I apologise to my readers who do not have an account and wish to comment, but you can gain an account by requesting one and it generally takes no more than a few days.


End file.
